To Be Entangled
by Somewhat Realistic Emerald
Summary: A rewrite of SO1, SO2 and SO3 into a single story.
1. C1 01 The First Special Day

**Chapter 1: The First Special Day**

**SD 346-05-10**

_Just where were those two boys?_ Millie thought to herself as she adjusted her shawl in irritation. The Sun was already well up past the horizon, but they were nowhere in sight. Millie had made sure that the small wooden hut on the edge of town was opened for today, as well as the gate of the village, but it was irresponsible of them to leave the well-being and defence of Kratus to one-teenage girl. And the village gates were heavy.

_They're probably still in bed._ Not surprising, for an out of the way village like Kratus, there wasn't really anything to secure the town against. Even roaming bandits rarely bothered with such a place unless it was a poor year and they were starving. Kratus was too remote from places that had things worth stealing and places worth spending money in. During the farming-off season, this job was basically there to give the appearance that their days were not being totally wasted. The town was surrounded by a tall wooden wall but for a single gated road that lead out to the rest of the world, so guarding it and checking the infrequent merchants that passed through was not much work for them. And anyone arriving from the north would not be doing so for another couple of hours, so there was no real need to have anyone at the hut to check them until then. The village was situated on a southern beach of the land, so someone could conceivably come in by southern sea, but Kratus wasn't large enough to have anything more than a single pier for the fishermen.

Sometime later, with the Sun midway above the horizon towards its peak, the figures of Roddick and Dorne finally appeared in the hut's doorway. Roddick, dressed in his basic and positively ancient blue tunic that he liked to wear so much, looked like his mother had dragged him out of bed, so that meant she probably had. His hair was just a bit too messy as always. In comparison, Dorne didn't look that tired, with his short blond hair combed straight, but couldn't he get a decently lengthened pair of pants somewhere?

"This must be the millionth time you've been late," Millie said, clearly making her voice sounding annoyed. Though perhaps it was more because she had nothing to do except play cards by herself until they arrived than the fact she had to look out over a dirt road that had no-one pass since dawn. She'd won every game, after cheating just a little.

"I think you exaggerate just a little there Millie. I haven't even been alive for a million days, let alone had the chance to be late for all of them," Dorne said, showing no sign of bother from Millie's reprimand. "I wonder how many years a million days would be?" he said to himself. "Must be a lot."

"We could work it out if there's nothing better to do," Roddick said as he sat down at the table next to Millie, such that he gave himself a good view of the road outside the village. Although there was not much Roddick could do to adjust himself, as the hut was barely large enough to fit the table inside as it was. "Although, I suppose we really should do some combat training, you can never tell what is going to happen. And we don't have an abacus."

"I don't think any abacus could count up to a million," Millie said, moving her right finger over the old wooden table as if she did have such an abacus.

"I bet the King must have one. I mean it wouldn't be that big, when you think about it, right? Or maybe you can find one in the Fallen Star Ruin in the north," Dorne said. The Fallen Star Ruin was said to have come from the sky hundreds of years ago, impossible as that may be. Thieves had long stripped it of everything that looked remotely valuable, so if there was an abacus there once, it was unlikely to be there now. "Anyway, here you go."

Dorne dumped his 'trash' on the table, which forced Millie's hands away. It wasn't really trash, but Dorne's attempts at preparing food might as well be. "We have to eat this?" Roddick said dismissively. "It's lucky I prepared my own today."

"You did not prepare anything. I'm sure you had your mother make it, just like every time it's your turn to bring the food," Millie said. "Anyway, I think you should give half of it to me."

"Again? I'd wager that if I've been late a million times, then you've asked for a share of my food two million" Roddick replied.

Millie clasped her hands in front of her mouth, and tried to open her eyes as wide as possible. "Ohhh, pretty please! You wouldn't want little ol' me to go hungry would you?"

"But, you already have a share the food that I just brought for today," Dorne said. "Isn't it good enough for you? You don't understand what I have to go through you know." At this point, Dorne became slight irritated "And that is the worst and most blatantly fake attempt of getting pity I've ever seen." Millie decided that she would completely ignore Dorne's unwanted comments and keep her focus on Roddick.

Roddick looked at her, then at Dorne's food on the table. "Oh, I suppose I can't let you starve. Why does this always happen?"

***

It was the middle of the afternoon before Roddick noticed two people riding on horses approaching the old village gates from the north. They were still far away along the road, too far to identify, but Roddick thought he recognised the distinctive shape and shimmer of the azure cloak the first one was wearing.

"Could that be… a knight?" Roddick said, mostly to himself. But that didn't stop the other two from hearing him.

Dorne was rather sceptical of the idea. "A knight? Why would a knight come here? It's a long way. It's just two guys on mounts."

"Where's the knight?!" Millie said as she came up from behind them to get a look. She squinted into the distance before delivering her indecisive conclusion. "Could be."

But Roddick knew that Dorne was mistaken. Neither rider was dressed in the magnificent plate armour of the royal knights, but the way the first of the two carried himself upright and proud in the way that Roddick associated with those appointed to defend the kingdom. His follower was much smaller and looked as if they tried to do the same, but was still too young and wasn't able to do it properly.

When the knight entered the gate, Roddick wasn't sure if he should actually try and stop him or not. Could he really do that? In the Kingdom of Muah, the Knights of Portmith could really go pretty much wherever they wanted to, whenever they wanted to. Not because of any sovereign given authority, but because everyone had so much respect for the Knights that there was never a reason to doubt their actions. But there was no need for Roddick to decide, as the first thing the knight did was to dismount and approach the single-room guard house by the side of the village gate.

"I don't want to hear it," Dorne said flatly.

The knight's face, framed by a neat brown hair and similar beard, seemed quite cheerful and honest to Roddick's eyes. "Excuse me lads and lasses," the knight said. "I am Korgan Mytran, this is my page-boy Reggo." The knight turned sideways slightly so that the three of them could get a good view of the boy, who could not have been any older than twelve. The boy sat up in his saddle slightly as he was acknowledged while Korgan continued his introduction. "It was requested by one of the chancellors that on my way through that this letter be delivered to a resident in this village."

"I didn't think they'd actually send a knight for just a message" Dorne said.

"Ha! Right you are! Actually, I have my own journey to lands south-east. When I heard the chancellor requesting a messenger, I offered to take it as I was passing this direction." Of course, Roddick knew that a knight would gladly offer his service to the kingdom to help in any way he could, no matter how beneath him the effort may appear.

The boy Reggo handed Korgan a small letter. "Let's see here, this is addressed to a 'Maltoth Chliette'."

"Dad?" Millie asked in mild surprise.

"Oh, well, that makes it easy. Lady, if you would be so kind as to guide the way? Reggo, stay here, look out for the horses and keep these men company, I should not be long."

The three boys watched Millie and Korgan walk off and out of sight behind some nearby houses before breaking the silence. "He seems like a nice man," Roddick said.

Reggo, who was stroking his horse, agreed instantly. "Oh, very much so. I try to emulate him in everything."

"Everything?" Dorne said, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course. If I am to be a knight myself one day, I must dedicate myself to the code of honour that a knight must hold," Reggo said with a touch of pride in his voice and hand on his heart for a moment before returning his attention to his animal.

Dorne made a sour face at the display, and Roddick couldn't help but make his own sour face at Dorne.

"Now, don't get me wrong Roddick," Dorne said. "I'm not saying that the knights are bad, or even just average. I know why they exist, they do their job and that's good and all. It's just, sometimes I think that honour stuff get blown a bit out of proportion to what is really important."

"But Dorne, that 'honour stuff' is what separates a knight from an ordinary soldier!"

"And here I thought it was the better equipment and pay."

"You know what I mean! Because of their honour they hold, everyone can depend on them."

"But you can depend on me! I know you better than some knight ever will. And I'm not a knight," Dorne said in an assuring voice, though who exactly he was assuring was not something that Roddick was sure of.

"Now I think you're putting things out of perspective," Roddick said. "It's not about the respect or reliance Dorne. It's… well…" It was what? Roddick couldn't think of the word that described his feelings. It wasn't that Roddick was obsessed with knighthood or anything, he knew that much. "I just like them. What wrong with that? I think it would great to be a knight."

"You're too old to become a knight. To become a knight, you have to start training under a mentor knight when you're seven, like I did. Ten, tops," Reggo said. "Sorry."

"See? If Knights really were all that, I'd bet they would wouldn't have such a stupid limit." Dorne quickly glanced at Reggo. "Err.. no offence."

"None taken. But it's not stupid. It takes years of training, and in far more areas than just handling a blade, being able to write or etiquette before the King. It wouldn't be fair to everyone that looks up to them if knights weren't trained to the very best that they could. So you have to start early."

"I suppose you're undertaking this training?" Dorne asked.

"Of course. I am a page-boy for a reason. In two summers, I aim to become a squire, and to finish as a knight on my twenty-first birthday."

"You're whole life planned out already."

"I don't see anything wrong with it," Roddick said.

"As always. But what if you were to get there and you found that you didn't like it?" Dorne left it unclear just to whom his question was directed.

"That wouldn't happen," Roddick couldn't think of how you could possibly train for that long and not realise that you didn't like it. And the training was quite varied, so it wouldn't be boring, would it?

"They wouldn't train you if they thought you'd actually be all grumpy about being a symbol of hope to people everywhere" Reggo said.

Dorne rolled his eyes. "'Symbol of Hope?' Excuse me, amongst all your training, I think they forgot to teach you about reality. Normal people don't care about that stuff, they have real problems, and no amount of honour or number of knights can fix them. They care about why they can't understand…"

"That's enough Dorne," Roddick said, ending his tirade. This wasn't the kind of way to speak to guests, and Dorne was starting to forget the possibility of unintended offence, despite what Reggo had said earlier. Although, Roddick couldn't ever recall Dorne speaking this way about knights, so why was he so worked up this time? But there was no need to continue the conversation, as Millie and her knight escort returned. "We're done here Reg," Korgan said. "Okay, we have a long way to go, so we can't stay here."

Quickly and nimbly, the two soldiers mounted their horses and turned them to leave the village. "Well, it was nice meeting you," Korgan said to Roddick's group. "But I apologise that I can't spare you any time."

"Oh, not at all, I understand," Roddick replied.

"Farewell then." And without waiting any longer, he kicked off his horse and left, with Reggo following wordlessly.

When the two of them have gone far enough to no longer hear the two boys turned their attention to Millie, Dorne asking the question they both wanted answered. "So Millie, what was that about?"

"Don't know yet, dad hasn't read it yet."

"The other villagers are going to ask me about them later. Why do they always ask me? What's wrong with you two?" Dorne said.

"It must be your pretty face," Millie suggested.

"Tch. If that's your opinion, then… ah nevermind." Dorne said, dismissing Millie with a wave.

Roddick started back to the guard house and resigned himself to the fact that they would have to wait until they learned to reason for today's esteemed guests. "Oh well, back to normal. At least something interesting happened today."

***

Before Millie could leave for work again the next day, her father stopped her.

"I've been called up to do some work in Coule. I'm sure you can look after yourself while I'm gone, but don't let those boys trick you into doing anything I wouldn't approve of." Millie's father paused for a moment, seeming to reconsider what he had just said. "Actually, perhaps I should say, 'don't trick those boys into doing anything I wouldn't approve of'."

"Where are you going Father?"

"It seems that a new sickness has hit our neighbours north of here. Healers and herbalists from around the country have been called to help control it quickly. So far, it doesn't look too serious, but the Chancellor has requested that I and many others lend aid to help ensure that the situation doesn't get out of hand."

Millie's father was by far the best healer in the village and the surrounding region, so it was only natural that he would be called up at a time like this. He was so good that in Portmith castle, his name was once known as the 'King of Herbs', having once attended the royal family and nobles directly. Before he had given that life up and moved out to Kratus. Millie could heal too, although she was much better at using her talents of heraldry to heal rather than the myriad of herbal mixtures her father excelled at. And herbs were much better than spells when it came to disease. Millie knew her father had no intention of bringing her with him this time, he must have thought her too young or inexperienced for something like this.

"But, maybe I could learn something? I mean, the Kingdom says it's not very dangerous, right? "

"If there's one girl that could survive it without so much as a sneeze, it's you. But let's not push our luck on the unknown, okay?"

Calling up her father and others for a problem in a single town suggested the Kingdom considered this a larger problem than they would probably like to admit. Still, lacking practical experience or not, Millie thought at the back of her mind that she could do something. It wasn't logical, but there is was.

"But, you'll be fine, right?"

"Of course, I know what I am doing." Her father ran his through Millie's light red hair. "I'll be back in a few days, once they figure out the best way to treat it. You've got the house for yourself until then, so don't mess it up."

Millie helped her father load his bags containing supplies of various herbs and mixing implements onto his shoulders. He had packed them all the night before and there were certainly a lot of them. Despite her father's calm toward the situation, Millie couldn't remember a time when he had prepared so thoroughly before. Once they reached the gates that Millie opened every morning, her father gave his final simple farewell.

"Right, I'm off. Love you," he said and then he kissed her on the forehead. And then there was nothing for Millie to do but watch him take the town's only road that would lead him north toward Coule.

***

"Hey Millie" Dorne asked as they sat in the guard house the next day. Millie was generally the most entertaining event on days like this when nothing else happened, but today Dorne thought he might have to provoke a response. Millie typically took more than a single day to become depressed like this, but Dorne couldn't see why this time should be different to all the others. Epidemics were rare and dangerous, to be sure, but Maltos was an expert at these situations and they hadn't any reason to believe this one as being particularly bad. Roddick could stare out the window for ages thinking in his own world if he had nothing to occupy him, Dorne wasn't sure if he could deal with Millie doing it too. "You wanted to go to Coule too right? Why didn't you?"

"They probably have enough heraldry users already," Millie said in a distracted tone. "And heraldry isn't very good against disease. It can relieve the symptoms somewhat, but it normally does nothing in terms of curing the disease."

"Why's that?"

"Haven't I told you this before?" If he kept at it, Dorne felt Millie could probably be coaxed out her worry by focusing her on something else.

"You've told me," Roddick said, still looking out the window. _Naturally._

"No, you've not told me," Dorne said, his words sounding like half-sighs.

"Well, I've heard some weird things about it. The weirdest one of all being that diseases are caused by little creatures that live inside of you. That's kinda gross when I think about it." Millie wrinkled her nose as she said the last part.

"There's no way that could be true," Dorne said in disbelief. Little creatures that make their homes in you, crawling around are what made a person sick? Only a sick mind could come up with something so obviously untrue and disgusting.

Roddick suddenly seemed focused on the conversation. "Oh, tell him about the heraldry idea. And the demonic spirits!"

"That one's a bit weird too. It doesn't apply to all diseases, but for some of them can be thought to be like heraldry emblems."

"Eh?" Dorne didn't see how that could make sense in any way.

"Key metaphor, remember? Then get to the demonic one," Roddick said eagerly.

"Oh, the key metaphor. Right. The disease is a lock, and the healing emblem is like a key." Millie made gestures with her fingers that made sense only to her as she spoke. "If you use the wrong one, it no better at opening the lock than no key at all. Since learning new emblems is a random trial process, actually finding the correct curing emblem for any disease is practically impossible baring a little piece of divine intervention."

"So why not try anyway?" Dorne already felt he knew the answer to this part, but if Millie didn't realise that, she would keep talking.

"Side effects. Who knows what a random new heraldry emblem could do? No one wants to risk it."

"You could Millie. If your hair falls out, or your ears grow as long as a sword, well, I'm sure everyone could live with that."

"Dorne! You're not supposed to say things like that!"

"Don't forget the part where you might have your tail grow out your nose. Demons might not even want to make you sick if that happened," Roddick added with a laugh.

"Hey, for that, I'm not going to tell you all about the demons that make people sick!" Millie's face was red and indignant.

Well, she was back. Not the best side of her, it probably wouldn't last all day and tomorrow she'd almost certainly be back to being distracted and muted unless her father sent back reassuring news soon. But at any rate, it was better than a lifeless puppet who just stared out the window, especially when Roddick already had a knack for such a thing even when nothing was wrong.

***

Two days had passed already, and Millie had heard no word from her father. Even if he must be very busy, he would normally have sent word along with one of the merchants that would pass down to their town. But then, there hadn't been any merchants either, perhaps they were being sensible and avoiding the local region until the mystery illness subsided. On the third day after he had left, she got up before dawn to open the roadside hut and the village gates, on the off chance that someone would arrive before the Sun with news.

One good piece of news was that for once, Roddick had made an effort to get up early as well. He looked like he was prepared for work too, his normally scruffy blue hair now tied back into a ponytail at the neck and held out of his eyes with a bandana. But even with company, Millie didn't feel like talking, practicing heraldry or anything else, and Roddick seemed to sense that, so he just sat there next to her, with a worried look on his face as he peered out over the road covered in darkness.

After some time, when light shown over the village and they could see more clearly, they heard a voice coming towards them. Not from the road, but from behind. It was Dorne, and he was frantically waving some piece of paper.

"Millie, I've a letter for you! Roddick! You have to read this!" he shouted. As he got up to the hut, he stopped before the entrance to catch his breath while hanging on the doorframe. "This note... huff... arrived just now... pigeon... huff," he said, holding it out for Millie to take. Millie could see from Dorne's expression of terror that the news must be terrible.

Millie took the note quickly and sat down. Roddick peered over her shoulder to read it, but while normally Millie would be annoyed by Roddick intruding on her privacy, the contents of the letter quickly pushed everything else out of her mind.

_Dearest Millie_

_The town has been completely overrun by this strange disease. I have been unable to determine its cause, but I have deduced that it is spread through skin contact. The town of Coule is finished. Half the population has passed already, and the other half, without exception, will most likely die within two days. All attempts made by myself and the other healers have failed, the disease is incurable for us. You and the boys must seal off Kratus in the meantime, and forbid entry to anyone for at least a moon, possibly longer. During this season, the village will have to live off of stored grain and whatever can be obtained through fishing, leaving the town for farming is too dangerous. After a moon, I expect that everyone with the virus will have passed on, leaving no one to further carry it, and so it should be safe after this. But even then, be extremely cautious, and do not touch anyone or any living thing from outside the town until a week has passed without sign of symptoms._

_These symptoms include a stiffing of the joints and flesh, a paling of the skin and vomiting a black liquid. It should be a simple matter to identify those with the virus. I do not know the time needed for symptoms to appear as of yet, but it cannot be more than a half-day._

_In treating the town I have been infected, so I cannot risk returning myself. I am sorry that I will never lay eyes on you again. Please always remember that your life is the thing I have treasured the most in my time._

_Your loving father,_

_Maltoth Chliette_

Putting down the letter onto the table, Millie stood up and ran out the door with tears streaming from her eyes.

"Father!"

"Millie, wait!" Roddick called from behind her.

***

Upon entering Coule, Millie could see instantly that the town wasn't as it should be. At this time of day, one would expect the town to be busy with children trying to drag their mothers from store to store while out of town merchants loudly announced that the very best leathers from Portmith was available from only them. But the town had no sign of life.

Taking her hand, Roddick lead Millie toward the largest inn of the town, which from the signs of the equipment left outside, had been transformed into some sort of makeshift hospital. It was two stories tall, and had always been full of noise no matter the time of day or night, whenever Millie had visited. But now, like everywhere else it was very quiet, but Millie was sure that if she strained, she could hear muffled groans inside coming out through the windows that had been boarded up.

"Well, we can't just stand here," Dorne said. "We need to find out quickly about this disease."

Dorne was right, but still, Millie's hand had trouble pushing the door open, and not because the door was in any way stuck. If the plague was so bad to cause this to an entire town, then...

Behind her, Roddick gave her hand a gentle push, revealing the interior. Inside the inn, many beds had been set-up in the hall, brought in from who knew where. All of them were full, some with two people, but none in the beds moved at all, despite the sudden increase in light brought on by Millie's entrance. Around the beds, several other people were arranged, some lying on the floor. Millie saw that some stared at nothing with open mouths, and a black liquid dribbling out.

"Over there!" Roddick pointed to a person over in the corner who moaned. Millie instantly recognised the pale figure as her father. She rushed over to him, but as she got close, he feebly raised his hand.

"No, you mustn't touch me," her father said with a strained voice, trying to shout when he could only whisper. "It spreads... through... skin contact... and who knows what else. Urrggg...!" Father leaned forward from his position, covering his mouth, and coughed up more of that liquid. It streamed through his hand and spread over his already stained clothes and then the floor, joining a pool that he must have created earlier.

"Father, we have to do something! There must be some heraldry that I know! It has to..."

"We already... tried. It has no effect on this. I have no idea what... this is, but every healer and herbalist that we've called in could do nothing. There's nothing you could possibly know that would work. Most of the people you see... they've already passed on. Ug..ug… Uggghhhh!" Her father again vomited more of the revolting black bile.

"Here, Mr. Killiet, let me help you," Dorne said as moved forward and took a handkerchief out of his pocket.

Millie, her father and Roddick all tried to protest at once. "You can't touch him, remember?!" Roddick said loudly. Someone else in the room mumbled in response, but Millie didn't care to make their words out.

"Don't worry, it won't do anything. Because..." Dorne paused for a moment. "I was already infected earlier.

"What?! How did this happen?!" Roddick said.

"It was when I received the pigeon's message. I think, I must have picked it up there."

Millie clasped her hands to her mouth. "Dorne, not you too?!"

"As you can see, so far, I'm not too badly off," Dorne said quietly. "But, I think I can feel my bones becoming stiff already." Supporting Millie' father, Dorne wiped the vomit from Maltos' face. "Mr. Killiet, what will happen to me?"

"The virus, whatever it does, seems to be in the blood. Makes it black. Takes about three days to kill you. You'll lose your sight before then, can't eat..." Seeing Dorne's reaction, Maltos' voice gained a touch of humour. "Perhaps I won't tell you the rest."

Millie collapsed to the floor with her head in her hands. _My father is going to die, and I can't even hold his hand!_ What else could she do?

Roddick was leaning over her, with his hands on her shoulders. Lifting his head towards her father, he said "Surely there must be some cure to this horrible thing?"

"Everything I know has failed. I do not know what we've done... to deserve such a miserable Fate, but we've no choice but to take it." Millie's father said with resignation. Dorne held him silently, but Millie could see that he was also on the verge of giving up.

"What about the stories of the herb on Mt. Metorx?!" Roddick suddenly said, raising his voice. Millie lifted her head as she heard. The legendary herb could supposedly sure every aliment in the world, this could not be an exception. There were many stories of those that claimed to have climbed to Mt. Metorx's peak and claimed it, surely it could not be just a story!

"Even if it were true... there's no chance I could make it up... uggghhh!" Millie's father leaned forward out of Dorne's arms and let out more of the disgusting black liquid, onto the previous amount, which had started to dry.

"But, we can make it!" Millie protested. Mt. Metorx was not far at all, they could reach the top today if they set out immediately. "I will! I will find it! Please Father, you must hold on! Roddick and I will climb Mt. Metorx."

"That's right," Roddick said. "There's no way I can fail, not this time. For you and for Dorne, we'll make it up there, find the legendary herb and cure you. We've no time to waste!"

"Hey! I might be sick, but I'm far from gone!" Dorne said. "I can make it, and you need all the help you can get."

"But Dorne... your illness... you have to rest." Roddick said.

Dorne replied firmly. "Rest isn't going to help. You two need my help to find it as quickly as possible, so that's what is going to happen."

Father spoke in a hoarse voice his opinion of the idea. "Well, no harm in trying. But legendary herbs aren't exactly ordinary. The stories say that quite a few people have found it, but now that I think about it, I don't know the name of a single one. Any hope is better than none, but..." her father paused, and wiped the tears from his eye. "If you don't get back in time..."

"No father, please don't say it."

"I want to say it. Millie, I've always been proud that destiny chose me to be your father."

Millie starred at her father for a moment "Come on, Millie. We have to get there as quickly as we can!"

"You're right Roddick. Father, I'll show you that you're right to be proud in me" she said as Roddick helped her up off her knees. Mt. Metorx wasn't that far, Millie knew that if she was fast enough, she could save him.

"We'll be back soon enough, you'll see." Dorne said as he gently put Millie's father to lean against the wooden wall. Then he stood up, but Millie was sure she caught him trying to hide the strain. Dorne moved toward them, and the three of them left the inn quickly for Mt. Metorx.

***

Compared to the taller mountains surrounding it, Mt. Metorx barely qualified as a mountain. It was fortunate that the most of the slopes of old Mt. Metorx were both dry and relatively shallow. Millie could remember the trouble she had once in getting her clothes clean from much more difficult climbs. As it was, it only took the group two hours or so to reach the summit.

Mt. Metorx was fairly flat at the top, giving good room for various grasses to grow. Millie hoped that searching for an unknown herb amongst them all would not be too difficult, regardless of how rare and legendary it might be, but she knew that hope alone would not make it true. But for both the sake of her father and Dorne they had to succeed here.

"Millie, you know more than I about herbs. Do you have idea what it should look like?" Roddick asked her.

Millie shook her head. "It's hard to say. The legends never really talked about the appearance of the herb, only that it could cure anything."

"Well, how about this one," Roddick said, referring to the freshly uprooted plant with wide leaves in his hand. "Perhaps if we just take all the herbs that you don't know, we can just test those."

"That's a good idea Roddick."

Roddick turned to face Dorne. "Dorne, I think that you should let Millie and I do the picking, just in case. We don't want the malady passing through the herbs to..." Roddick cut himself off as he apparently noticed that Dorne didn't really seem to be listening. Instead, he was stand at the edge of the cliff, staring out over the land back towards Kratus.

"I don't it matters. How much longer can I do this? I'm not sure... I could even get down from this mountain anymore. Even if you could identify them, the herbs... are useless to me."

"No Dorne! You mustn't say such things!" Millie cried as she ran over to him.

"Don't touch me!" Dorne shouted before Millie could get too close. "You must not touch me!"

"Dorne, Millie is right. You can't give up now! You still breathe, as long as you do..."

"I don't want to hear it. Perhaps you are right, there is still hope. But first, I just want to stand here. If you aren't right, if you're wrong, then... I just want to remember this. You'll stand here by me, won't you Millie? Roddick?"

"Oh course, but you must promise not to give up." Millie said.

"Just for a moment then." Roddick agreed.

Millie stood between Roddick and Dorne, and as they looked over the land, she tried to not think about this as the last time the three of them would be together. To avoid thinking about it, she looked down. The cliff they were at the top of was reasonably tall, but far from completely vertical. One could climb down carefully amongst the growing grasses and not injure themselves if they had a mind to.

"You should jump," said an unknown voice behind them.

In shock, Millie turned quickly to face the voice, only to find that the speaker was right behind her. Stumbling backwards to put room between herself and the mysterious young looking woman who stood there, she found herself without anything to stand on.

"Ahhh!" Millie tried to grab frantically at Roddick and Dorne in and effort to support herself, but it was useless as they had also fallen back in surprise. Millie's hands also reached out towards the woman, but grasped nothing but air. The woman made no effort to help her, and stood there, head tilted to the side and with a slight smile on her face. Then Millie saw the top of the cliff move into the distance as she fell down, Roddick and Dorne following.

***

Somewhere at the bottom of the cliff, Millie found herself piled into some soft shrubbery. Counting herself lucky to be alive, she quickly checked herself for injuries, but there was nothing other than scratches and bruises that her heraldry could easily heal. However, she couldn't say the same for her clothes. She'd have to get a new dress or do her best to mend this one sometime later for certain. But at least it was still wearable from what she could see.

Picking twigs and the odd bug out of her hair, Millie stood up and looked at the boys. Dorne had picked himself up already, and Roddick was groaning, but moving without problems. _Very lucky indeed. _But what was with the expression on Dorne's face?

"dhaets ad dher wuhz nat eh ni wuhn hir twehn ti seh kEnds E go wehn ai skaend dhi e ri E," said a female voice, behind her. Another unknown person speaking behind her already? But Millie couldn't understand a word of what they were saying this time.

Millie turned, more slowly this time, to witness man and woman, dressed in rather odd yet neat red clothing, unlike any she had seen before. They were just standing there looking at the three of them. _So now what?_

* * *

**Dictionary: Kratus**

Kratus is an ordinary town by Roakian standards, located on the southern end of the Moore Continent on the planet Roak. It is a small town, and nearly all the families of the town spend half the year farming, and year-round fishing. Kratus has a population of approximately 400. Traders from larger cities in Moore occasionally visit in ones and twos, peddling the more exotic wares and tools that would otherwise be unavailable here.

Its relative isolation from the rest of the country means that the population is in general cautious of outsiders, but not hostile. During the non-farming season, three young people of the village (Roddick, Millie and Dorne) are entrusted with checking the merchants and visitors to the town, as well as protecting it from danger.

* * *

**Comments on writing:**

This is part of a series that attempts to combine the stories of SO1, SO2 and SO3 into a single story by using the common elements as a base and going from there. SO:BS and SO4 are being ignored, due to lack of playing those games. Ideally the situations that occur in this story will be similar (but not the same) as the story in the games near the beginning. However, I aim to change it more as the story develops. This makes the story a alternate universe.

The personalities of the characters (particularly the characters that were playable in the games) are primarily the same, since there is little point writing a Star Ocean story if I don't do this. However, as the story develops, there are situations that occur will allow exploration of the characters in ways that did not occur in the games due to different events happening. That is, for some characters, I hope to expand and look at aspects of their personalities that were touched on in the games. The backgrounds of the characters may have changed, depending on who they are, while others are pretty much the same as who they were before. Please treat this as a puzzle for you to figure out.

If you have any comments or suggestions for improvement in any way, feel free to let me know, thank you.

I hope that you will have an enjoyable time reading this work.

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own this story or the characters in it, a situation that only be described as a travesty of justice to the nth degree!


	2. C1 02 To Stand Before the Star Ocean

**Chapter 1-2: To stand before the Star Ocean**

**SD 346-05-13**

Roddick brought himself to his feet. He knew he would be bruised after falling so far, but he felt otherwise fine, and Millie should be easily able to take care of the bruises. Millie and Dorne were also seemed okay, but behind them, two strangers in very odd and neat dull-red and grey clothes stood. Roddick immediately noticed that they were not fellpools like himself, since they lacked tails, but he could not guess from which people they came. They must be something quite exotic, especially for this part of the world.

One of the two strangers, a woman with bobbed blond hair, looked at them for a moment in confusion, and then turned to address her companion. "dhaets ad dher wuhz nat eh ni wuhn hir twehn ti seh kEnds E go wehn ai skaend dhi e ri E," she said an odd, fast-spoken accent that Roddick had not heard before.

"dhi skaen haez e wuhn huhn drihd mi tEr re di Es no wuhn shUd haev behn e bEl tu rich e lo ke shEn laik dhIs In dhaet short E maunt uhv taim fruhm aut said dhaet renj," the man with neat black hair said, keeping his blue eyes focus on them. His words were not quite as quick, but still quite fast to Roddick's ear. He did not look exactly threatening; it was more like he was being extremely wary.

_What __are these strange people saying?_ Roddick knew that people from across the sea had once spoken other strange tongues, but he was sure that those had all disappeared many years before Roddick's time. Where these people from some undiscovered land? And were they dangerous?

Roddick move forward towards them, putting himself between the strangers and his friends, and he made it obvious that his left hand gripped a sheathe holding a sword as he did so. He decided against drawing it, as that might make the situation worse, but he had to show off his weapon to let them know that he wasn't rattled or to be trifled with if need be. At this display, the man moved his hand to his right hip, where Roddick noticed some sort of pouch. Was it his weapon? It was too small to carry anything much larger than a small knife though, but would he really challenge use of such a small weapon against a sword?

The woman started speaking again. "ai wuhn dEr hwuht laeng gwihj dhe spik me bi dhe kaen hehlp uhs." The woman pulled out from behind something, and held forth hand so that Roddick could clearly see a few funny metal objects, each no larger than a pocbean. The woman picked one up in a very deliberate fashion, and placed it _into_ her left, round-shaped ear under her hair. She started to point to ear and spoke the same word repeatedly "hir hir."

She gave her taller companion one of the devices, and he quickly followed her example by placing one of the small objects firmly in his ear. She then took a step forward to Roddick, while repeating her previous words. "hir hir."

Roddick turned his head to find Millie had come right up next to him. Dorne, a few steps further back, had seemingly decided to sit on the ground rather than stand. Damn, the disease must be getting to him! But what did these people want, and could they afford to ignore them now?

"So, do you think we should try it? The ear thing?" Millie asked him.

"Well, I guess we should," Roddick replied. "It doesn't seem too dangerous." Roddick took a step and reached out with his right hand to one of the devices. Plucking it carefully out of the woman's hand, it felt quite smooth and cool to the touch. He was about to move back, but found his way blocked as Millie had already stepped up behind him, and she gazed curiously over his shoulder, "Well, go on" she encouraged.

Roddick placed the object in his right ear. It didn't hurt, but the shape was slightly uncomfortable.

"Is it okay?" the woman asked. "Does it fit well? Does it work?"

"Well, it feels strange, but I'm not sure what you mean about..." Roddick suddenly realised what the device was doing, and in shock jumped backward into Millie. "Ah! I can understand you!"

Both the man and woman smiled at him. "Well, that is the point," the man said. "I've never quite figured out how these things work, but it'll translate everything you hear into your own language. Much more convenient, wouldn't you say?"

"Roddick, what's going on?" Millie asked. "You know what they say because of that thing?"

"Neat trick," Dorne added. "I don't suppose they have anything that can fix me, do they?"

"Oh, Dorne!" Roddick felt like he was returning to his body after leaving it, such as the shock of the ear device. He turned himself back to face the strangers, who didn't feel quite so threatening now that he knew what they were saying. "So, uh... greetings." Roddick paused, as he considered how polite he should be in contrast with the urgency of the situation. "Look, this earbean is really amazing, but we're really in a hurry. My friend is sick, we have to search for a cure right away!"

"Sick?" The woman tilted her head as she looked at Dorne. "If I may take a look." Without actually waiting for Roddick's permission, she started to move towards Dorne, but suddenly Millie moved into her path. "Wait, you'll get sick too if you touch him!"

"It's fine, I can examine him without contact if I need to" the woman said, but Millie had a combination of puzzlement and distress on her face. "You haven't given her a translator yet Ilia, she can't understand you," the man behind Ilia said.

"Heh, oops," Ilia said. Ilia opened her hand to present Millie with one of the earbeans and Millie looked curiously at it before quickly deciding to follow Roddick' example. Placing it in her right ear, Roddick watcher her face's expression of amazement as she realised she could understand the strange people's speech.

"This is so incredible!" Millie said as she ran up to Roddick. "I can't believe such a tiny rock could do such a thing!"

"Umm... yeah," Dorne interrupted. "That's nice and all, but weren't we supposed to be focused on me?"

"Oh! Miss! Sir!" Millie now ran up to the two strangers. "This is so amazing, but is there anything you can cure my friend with?"

"Wow, that didn't take long," the man said. "Give an inch..."

"What's an 'inch'?" Roddick asked curiously, before refocusing his attention to the more important matter. "Millie, we're supposed to be looking for the herb for that, not bothering these people, I know, it is very-"

"But think Roddick! If they can do this, who knows what they can do!?"

"Well, maybe so..." Roddick turned back to look at the strange pair, who were now talking among themselves. They were whispering and covering their mouths and Roddick couldn't hear their words. But not before long, they turned back to the trio from Kratus.

"Okay. Let's us tell you about us, and our idea. My name is Ronyx J. Kenny," the man with blue hair said. He pointed to his partner, "and this is Ilia Silestri". Ilia nodded, and then Ronyx continued. "We're come here from a place far away."

"Like across the ocean?!" Millie asked.

"Like that, but not quite."

Millie tilted her head to the side. "Huh?"

"Ummm... it's kind of difficult to explain, so let us explain why we are here. We've come from a place that is currently at war with another power. This land we stand in now, and the people that live off it, were of no concern to us, but we spied our enemy sending people here recently, so we have followed to see if we could determine the reason."

"I see..." Roddick mused. "You have followed your enemy here, but we have seen no such thing. There has not been anyone here out of the ordinary. And I have to say that I am concerned about this. This land is not recently accustomed to war, but if you are thinking of bringing it here, I will stop you now if need be."

"Look, there's no need for that." Ronyx raised his hands to show them empty. "It's almost impossible for this land to be a battleground between us."

"Well, I'll accept that for now."

"Now, your friend, he's sick you say. Do you know how? What's his name?" Ilia asked.

"What are they saying about me? Do you think they've got something so that I don't turn into a freaking statue? And do I get one of them ear-things too?" Dorne said weakly, but with a forced smile. Ilia gently carefully placed another earbean on the ground in front of Dorne, and she was very obviously not touching him. Dorne quickly took it up, and showed no hesitation in placing it in his ear.

Roddick suddenly realised that he had not introduced himself or anyone else. "Oh. His name is..."

"Dorne Murtough," Dorne said before Roddick could get it out. He squinted and poked his right ear a little. "I might not be feel as my usual self, but I can still introduce myself at least."

"Well, I'm Roddick. And this is Millie. And for your other question no, we don't know how. It's a new disease that we've never seen before. It spreads by contact and is quickly fatal."

"Interesting." The man called Ronyx pondered this for a moment, rubbing his chin. "What do you think Ilia?"

"While not impossible, I find it rather unlikely such a disease would evolve normally, as it would quickly eliminate its potential hosts. For us to arrive here at this time seems an unlikely coincidence. But if we suppose that it was created on purpose by the Resonians, then our timing would be perfectly logical."

"Created?!" Millie exclaimed. "There are people who can do that? Create a disease?!" She started to look at these strangers more nervously.

"Yes, they could do that, if they really wanted to. But why would they want to? To find that out, it would help to discover the workings of the disease. So we would like to take you with us to our ship, where we'll take a closer look and find out what is wrong. Is that okay with you?" Ronyx asked.

"Do it," Dorne said before Roddick could consider the question. "After all, people who can translate words seem a better chance than looking for a weed that doesn't exist at the bottom of a mountain."

"But, we're so far from the ocean," Millie said. "How can we get to your boat? And aboard this boat you have a healer waiting?"

"Err... something like that," Ronyx said. "It's an intergalactic class ship, so the teleportation range will be able to reach us here. Don't worry about it."

"Eh?" Millie didn't seem to have been helped at all by that explanation, and Roddick had to agree with her.

"Just close your eyes," Ilia said wistfully. "Before our journey starts, you'll feel a slight tingling sensation, but just keep your eyes closed, okay? Nothing bad is going to happen."

Just before closing his eyes, Roddick saw Ilia starting to whisper into her right arm, of all things. And after a few moments, Roddick started to wonder what he was doing with his eyes shut, this wasn't getting them anywhere. Then the tingling sensation came. Roddick found it kind of ticklish, a smile came across his face as he heard Millie start to giggle. She probably found it ticklish.

The effect quickly wore off though, leaving Roddick to wonder what was going on. It was suddenly very calm, as if the wind had stopped.

"Err... how is this supposed to help?" Dorne asked.

"You can open you eyes if you like," Ilia said.

Roddick carefully opened one eye, but was surprised when Millie practically jumped on top of him.

"Ahhh! Millie, what are you doing?!"

"Sorry!" Millie let go or Roddick and stood steady on the floor as normal. "I was just so surprised."

***

Roddick turned, stared at his new surroundings and turned again. He was surrounded on all sides by grey walls that were covered in funny glowing points of light. Some of them even appeared to be floating in the air. He was in a rectangular room, larger than Roddick's entire house, and there were several other people there. These people were all dressed in a similar manner, with clothes of blue and grey that looked neat, just like Ronyx and Ilia's. Most were sitting in front of strange windows that also glowed like the ones on the walls. While some of women in the room wore some sort of narrow skirt and others wore pants, the difference between the clothes worn by the men and the women appeared to be as minimal as body physique differences would allow, which Roddick couldn't imagine happening at home, now that he thought about it.

Roddick was looking down at a slight angle to these new people, who were all staring back upwards at him, most of which with open mouths. This made Roddick realise that they were on some sort of raised platform. Looking down and shuffling his feet as he looked, he saw a white circular platform, criss-crossed with faint blue-lines. When he looked back at all the people outside the platform, they had started speaking quietly to each other with comments on Roddick's group. They were trying to keep quiet, and most covered their mouths as they spoke, but Roddick was able to understand a few remarks.

"…aww, she jumped, how cute…"

"…the captain must know this is against regul..."

"…look at those clothes…"

"...is it safe to let them keep swords like that?"

"…what would they use tails for anyway…"

Roddick swung his tail around behind him instinctively. What do they mean 'use' a tail for? Roddick sometimes grabs and carried things with it, although he wasn't as co-ordinated as Dorne was. Dorne sometimes even tried using it as a third 'hand' to wield a blade in, but whenever he did he couldn't focus on his actual hands and tended to lose the practice round. Millie preferred to keep her tail fluffy, and didn't 'use' it for anything if she could help it.

One of the men sitting in front of a giant wall that was flashing colours started speaking as if he was talking to Ronyx, but he didn't turn around to face them. Rather, he just continued to stare at his coloured wall.

"Sir, ma'am. You've returned rather earlier than expected. I'm redirecting you to the Clean Room now."

Suddenly, the world went black, and Roddick felt the same tingling sensation as he had just before. But before he could do anything, he could see again. Only now, where was he? It was a smaller room this time, but still larger than his entire house. To his left was the largest piece of clear-rock Roddick had ever seen, only it wasn't rocky at all, it was perfectly smooth, perfectly clear and divided the room into two.

"Roddick! Dorne! You've got to see this!" Millie screamed with excitement. Roddick turned quickly to see what Millie was seeing, but stopped almost immediately.

The wall where Millie was standing was another made of that smooth clear-rock, and past that, there was nothing. No mountains, no trees, not even water. Just... stars.

"Are looking out over a cliff?" Dorne asked. "I'm trying to look down, but I can't see the ground."

"Err… no." Ronyx said simply.

"Wow, those stars are so beautiful..." Millie said softly. "It's almost like a… star ocean."

Suddenly, Dorne backed away from the window and covered his mouth as he started coughing. But it was only a few deep coughs before he stood straight again.

"Dorne, are you okay?" Millie asked anxiously, leaning forward and looking at Dorne with her arms behind her back.

"I'm fine" Dorne said quickly, waving his arm to dismiss concern quickly.

Roddick wasn't convinced, but he turned back to the window, suddenly realised something was weird about those stars. "Hey, why is it suddenly I can see the stars? It was afternoon just now, where did the sun go?"

"Ah! Well, you see..." Ronyx suddenly looked like he was trying to stand taller. "Actually, we are now on a ship in space. Welcome aboard the Calnus."

Dorne was the first one to question his understanding of this. "What's space? I know 'space' is what you have when you have an empty area, but..."

Ilia spoke in something that Roddick thought sounded... motherly? "What he means it, we're above the sky."

Millie looked confused. "Above the sky?"

"Right. We are in a boat really high up off the ground. So high, that we cannot even see the ground anymore."

"Are we going to fall?!" Millie asked suddenly.

"It's fine, we do this all the time."

Ronyx suddenly looked at something he was wearing on his arm, and lifted his head to speak to them again. "Okay, looks like we're safe. So, this is what we call the 'clean room'. The systems have just been running the preliminary tests, and so it seems only Dorne is infected with any dangerous materials. That means everyone else has to leave this room right now."

"What?! We're leaving Dorne alone?" Millie said in a high pitched voice.

"Don't worry," Ilia said as she led the way to the clear-rock wall, and pushed open a doorway in it. "We have to do this for safety reasons, but you can still stand out here on this side of the door." Ilia closed the door after the four of them had passed through. "Okay, you see? Dorne is still there. And you can still talk to him, alright?"

"I see." Roddick didn't think the clear-rock wall didn't seem so amazing now for some reason. It was more... depressing.

"So, I'm stuck here?" Dorne asked.

"What we intend is to take body samples from you to try and determine what the disease is, so that we can cure it." Ronyx said.

"How long will that take?" Millie asked.

"I don't know," Ronyx said.

"We'll try and get it done as quickly as we can, alright?" Ilia added.

"Well, alright," Dorne said with his forehead to the glass, but Roddick didn't feel that Dorne meant it.

***

Ilia had been running through the various reports on the biology of health of the ship's newest guest along with the mysterious virus for a couple of hours in her office alone when Ronyx finally managed to enter.

"Alone are we?" she said, grabbing her coffee mug as she swivelled around in her chair to leave screens of DNA analysis to her back.

"I'm so tired. It's so frustrating trying to explain everything like a warp drive to someone who has never even seen a monitor before..." Ronyx sighed before continuing. "I feel like it took me an hour just to explain the food synthesis machine."

"You're looking at it the wrong way," Ilia said. "Instead of saying how it works in an absolute sense, you should just be talking about such devices in analogies, and explain what they do without worrying how they work. It's not like they have any use for technical data once they leave the ship and go back to live unhindered on their undeveloped planet."

"I'll remember that for next time. Until then, I've stationed a couple of recruits outside of the clean room to provide company for him."

"Oh, how cruel. For the recruits." Ilia took a sip of coffee, only to make a sour face as she found it to be room temperature. She had left it alone to long due to focusing on her work. Again.

"So, my day's been fun," Ronyx said, suddenly raising his voice to indicate a change in topic. "How's yours?" Ronyx grabbed an empty seat next to Ilia so that he could properly see the information on her monitors.

"Ah, well, there is certainly a lot of interesting stuff here. Okay..." Ilia shuffled through the pages on her holographic display by moving her hands over the screen as she searched for the information she most wanted to show off. "Let's see... I had a look at the DNA. Both surprisingly for a species that's never had any outside contact, and unsurprisingly for a species that looks humanoid, the DNA exhibits signs of humanoid convergence. But more importantly, Dorne has two separate sets of DNA. Apparently his original, and a modified version due to the effects of the virus."

"And this virus, how's it work?"

"Extremely infectious, but dies within seconds of exposure to a temperature that is not the standard body temperature of a Roakian, which explains its complete inability to infect through methods other than contact. It infects all organs, but is rather inefficient, producing this weird black by-product by the bucket-load. And I mean that rather literally, unfortunately."

"What kind of time-scale are we looking at?"

"I estimate that we have approximately two days at the current rate before Dorne is irreparably damaged by the virus, although I cannot be sure since everything I know about Roakian physiology is what I gleaned in the past three hours. I want to have the lab run some more tests, however it is unlikely that a cure will be created in that time. Probably the best solution would be to place Dorne in cold stasis until we can devise one. If we can at all." It was not a likely proposition.

"Well, it's better than just dying. But why so pessimistic?"

"Unfortunately, the virus is rather hard to pin down. It resists being identified, so there's no good way to counter it. I think the best solution would be to discover how the virus was engineered. We would certainly have more success that way."

"Giving me the difficult work?" Ronyx smiled weakly.

"I try my best." Ilia smiled back in the same fashion. "Also, I sent to the chemistry lab the black liquid that Dorne was throwing up as a by-product of the virus. It's biologically harmless far as I can tell, except as a possible choking hazard, but I was having difficulty identifying its chemical structure, similar to the virus."

"Well, I'll go see what they have..." Ronyx stood up to leave. "But first, I'm going to see if I can save myself some trouble for the future, and get our new company addicted to television."

***

Dorne sat alone on the bed in the room that he had been provided. Completely clean they said, to keep everyone else safe. It made sense, but Dorne found it infuriating. Outside there were a couple of the ship's persons, two women, to provide company, but as Dorne did not feel like talking to them, he didn't, and he turned off the voice communication between the inside and outside so that they knew he wanted to be alone. They were seated at a table and talked to each other, while keeping their eyes alternately focused in Dorne's general direction and on pieces of paper that they had. He felt like those little metal animal things were the only ones to visit, and then only to pull body parts of him to look at.

That was being unfair. Roddick and Millie had come over as many times as they said they could, even though Dorne had told them not to waste the opportunity and to examine the ship. But even when they were here, they were not so much 'here' as 'there' on the other side of an invisible wall that Ronyx called 'glass'.

Absent-mindedly, Dorne picked up a funny cube thing he had been given to pass the time. It was a curious thing, made of something neither wood nor metal, and each side was split up into nine coloured squares. Apparently it was a puzzle in which you were supposed to move the squares around so that each side had only one colour on it as a method of passing the time, but the first time Dorne tried it, he had grown frustrated within minutes and put it down. Examining it for the second time, he decided that he wasn't even going to bother, and quickly put it back unsolved on the otherwise empty table next to the bed.

Taking care not to step in the bucket by the bed, Dorne stood up. In the bucket was that filthy black stuff that he had brought up earlier. Apparently, there were many people on this ship who were interested that stuff, but Dorne just wanted all of it out of him, and as quickly has possible.

Dorne strode to the large window of his room, giving him a view of the stars outside. The blackness of space was a bit like the vomit in the bucket, they were both similar tones of black, and they made him feel very small. The bucket-vomit because it reminded him that he was going to die, and space, well, it was just very, very big.

_If I am to die, then what?_ Dorne couldn't put the question out of his mind about what it would be like to die. He would go to the afterlife in the world of the gods, but everything that had happened recently made Dorne question their power. And what sort of world would they send Dorne to? The solitary fields of Limbo? The paradise? Or the garbage pile of Daemonium? Well, probably not that last one. Dorne hoped that he wasn't deserving of that.

_My life, hasn't been a bad one, right? I'm not a bad person._ Looking out at the stars, Dorne began to doubt that the gods even cared for him, with so much out there. Maybe they may just throw his soul into The Tip of Daemonium just to get him out of their way before they continued doing whatever gods did.

Whatever the case for his fate, Dorne decided that he wasn't at fault. That made him feel a little better. He had protected his town and did his fair share of farming, so even if he did die at the young age of nineteen, there was nothing anyone could say he did wrong. Except...

"Hey Dorne, are you alright?"

Dorne turned around to see Millie standing behind him. _In_ the clean room.

"Millie, what are you doing, you aren't supposed..." He hadn't heard her enter, was he so engrossed in his own thoughts?

"It's fine. See, those girls aren't complaining," Millie said as she looked at the two women outside. Dorne saw while they were clearly looking in, they did not react unusually in any way, so he supposed it must be okay.

"I'm not going to get sick, so don't worry, everything's under control."

"I see." So they must have found a way to prevent healthy people from getting sick. "But, where is Roddick?"

"Oh, he's couldn't come right now. So it's just you and me." Millie walked over to Dorne's bed and sat down. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." It was true. At least, he thought it was. Or a few moments ago, he thought it was. "Millie..." Dorne tried to think of a conversation that would not sound superficial under the circumstances. "So, what have you seen so far?"

"Lots of stuff. It's really interesting, and makes you think about things in new ways." Millie patted the bed to indicate that Dorne should sit beside her. "Dorne, let me ask you. Do you ever feel like there's a part of you inside you that is not like the rest of you?"

"A part of me, that's not a part of me?"

"Something inside you that wants to get out."

"Well, not really," Dorne said as he sat down.

"Are you sure? Because I think there is."

"You... do?"

Millie stared directly into Dorne's blue eyes. "Very much so. In even your worst enemy there is something that is not your enemy. And in your friend, there is something that wants to be more. Isn't that what you feel?"

"Millie, I..."

"It might be good for everyone if you let this part of you out." Millie held Dorne's face gently. "Of course, you may not want to let it out. Maybe if you do, you believe things would go badly for you. That's up to you. Perhaps later you'll forget, but if you can, I just want you to remember what I've said, okay? I thought that maybe that part of you wanted some help to be free, but you should decide if it's a good thing first."

Dorne stared at Millie for a while. _Does she know? How does she know? I never given any sign, have I? And what about Roddick?_

"I'm sleepy," Millie said abruptly. Lying down on the bed, which was a bit narrow for two people. "You must be tired too. Think about what I said you sleep, Dorne."

Lying down besides her, but looking away from her and out towards the glass, behind which the two women from the ship continued to occasionally look at him, Dorne tried to organise his thoughts as he was going to sleep.

* * *

**Dictionary: Teleportation**** and Transporters**

Invented in SD207, teleportation is the process of transforming a body of matter into energy which can be quickly and easily moved to another region where it is turned back into physical matter. This requires that that an accurate map of every particle in the body be recorded, and for a long time it was thought that the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle would prevent this.

The ability to synthase bodies of materials from nothing had been discovered previously, and it was the celebrated work of Theanull Frimeldas in SD207 that overcame the problems of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, thus finally overcoming the problems of teleportation for living beings. Devices that can teleport object between locations are called transporters or teleporters generally.

Because teleportation is a very delicate process, and sensitive to possible loss of information in transit, teleportation is only permitted legally between two points, one of which must be a dedicated teleportation centre. These centres ensure that there are no abnormalities in the prepared transmission route before teleportation takes place. The best teleporters even allow parts of the body that have been transported to interact normally with those that have yet to be transported, although normally this process is too quick to be noticed.

For the brave that are willing to take the risk of having only half their body show up at the other end, or being cloned, there is the highly discouraged (not to mention illegal) option of forgoing the safety procedures...


	3. C1 03 Something Spiffy

**Chapter 1-3: Something Spiffy**

**SD346-05-14**

"Hey Roddick, do you think if I asked, these people would give me one of their outfits?" Millie said cheerfully as she examined the clothes of Ursula. Ursula was a young female officer who had been given the task of accompanying Roddick and Millie and guiding them around the ship while Ronyx and Ilia attended to whatever work they did on a ship where all the work seemed to be done by metal boxes. She wore clothes that were similar in cut to everyone else aboard the _Calnus_, a very neat, practical and mostly unadorned jacket and a straight skirt. Ursula's uniform was in various shades of yellow, the colour for cadets, Roddick had been told.

Ursula had a slightly perplexed expression in her pale face and she stiffly lifted her left arm as Millie tried to examine it.

"Millie..." Roddick said with a sigh as he stood by with his arms crossed, trying to be as uninvolved as he could in this invasion of personal space. "You can't just keep asking these people for things. You know that I think these clothes are strange too, but could you at least contain yourself to looking at wear that is currently not worn?"

"Perhaps." Ursula said a manner of fact voice to answer Millie's original question. "While there is no logical reason it could not be done, given the cost involved being negligible, such an action may be considered to be against regulations regarding interactions between the Federation and cultures from underdeveloped planets. Personally, I think it is a good idea." Roddick reasoned that while Ursula had been expecting that he and Millie would be curious about many things that she thought ordinary, she hadn't really considered herself or her clothes in the list of things to examine.

"But they're so different. Everyone back home will want to see this for sure."

"And are you telling me that you'd willing wear a skirt that would hide your tail?" Roddick said with a tone of sarcasm.

"I'll cut a hole for it, silly."

"I am not certain that there are many tools available easily to a person of your socio-economic status on your planet that could successfully cut a hole in this material. It is designed to accommodate a heavy amount of wear without damage or staining." Ursula said, still without changing her tone throughout.

"I don't know what you just said about so-so-eco whatever, but it won't be a problem. I'm sure Roddick will let me borrow his sword for a bit." Millie said without dropping her cheerful demeanour one bit.

"I admit, I had not considered a sword as a tool for a dressmaker." Ursula lifted her other arm as Millie went behind her to investigate the other side of her jacket.

"Millie, it's a sword, not a needle."

Millie momentarily paused her investigation, although she didn't move away from Ursula. "Oh come on Roddick! I'm probably better with a sword than a needle anyway."

"Only because when you use a sword, the unintentional bleeding can be half excused. I suppose it's a good thing you train to be a healer."

Millie scrunched up her face and stuck out the tip of her tongue at Roddick, then returned to feeling and then smelling the plain yellow fabric of Ursula's sleeves.

"Do you mind if I look at your tail?" Ursula asked. Millie immediately stopped her investigation of Ursula's clothing. "I have wondered what they felt like, but I do not intend to have one attached to me."

"You can get a tail stuck on you? Like an actually body tail that's part of you?" Roddick said in surprise.

"Yes, you could. Generally, not many people in the military undergo procedures to have organic body parts attached to them, as they are discouraged by training regulations, but if you have the money, you could have a tail, or wings, or various other things made a part of you." Ursula turned back to face Millie. "As I was asking before, do you mind if I examine your tail?"

""My... tail?"

"Yes. I've never personally seen a humanoid with a tail before. Of course, I've seen holograms of the Foxtail people and so on, but I'm sure yours must differ them theirs and you are the first people from your planet that we've met. I was wondering what it felt like. I could possibly have one grafted on if I so desired, but they are expensive."

Millie suddenly grabbed her tail in her hands. "Err... I mean, you really shouldn't go around just touching other people's tails, unless you know them really, really well."

Roddick chuckled quietly as he watched Millie fret about what she was going to do. This would hopefully make Millie think more carefully in the future before going around invading personal space.

***

Ursula stood passively next to the 'synthesis' machine, as she explained its function to Roddick and Millie. "I will assume that there will not be too much trouble for this, given the level of exposure to technology that you have already received. If there is any difficulty from the Federation regarding regulations, the Captain will be taking the responsibility already, so this will not make a significant impact should it come to that."

"Sometimes, could you just try speaking normally?" Roddick said. Maybe it was just the way it was translated, but Ursula's lack of tonal changes while speaking was a bit off-putting. No one else they had met aboard this ship spoke like that.

"It is my accent. How would you define normal for a person who originates from a different culture?" Ursula let the question hang in the air for a moment, but Roddick didn't know how to respond, so Ursula continued. "Returning to the point, I will prepare one set of clothes for each of you, given that your current ones are damaged."

"Dorne too, don't forget!" Millie said.

Ursula blinked for a moment, and then decided to continue. "Fine, your friend as well may have one set. I cannot give you a uniform like ours as that would be against regulation PFU five two eight dot five, 'requirements to acting as a member of the Terran Alliance', of which you are not."

"Awww…"

Ursula blinked several times at Millie's disappointment. "As I was saying, I will instead prepare one outfit each. However, I will need to know what kind of outfit you would like. It would be best if it was something that you could wear on your own planet normally."

Clothes were something Roddick generally did not bother too much with. Of course, it was nice to dress neatly, but good clothes were too expensive in general, unless... "Say, how much does this thing cost?"

"Cost? I told you previously that the cost was negligible, and it is a service I am providing to you for free."

"And this can make any type of clothing? With metal?"

"It would depend on the raw materials available, but I would imagine we would already have anything available on your planet and more aside. Various types of metal are obviously available."

"So I could have some sort of armour?"

"Armour?!" Millie said. "Why the heck would you want armour?!"

"Armour is really expensive at home. You pretty much have to work directly for the King or one of the higher nobles to wear it, and even when you do wear it, it still belongs to them. If I can have any set of clothes for free, I think some armour would be a good choice."

"Fine, you may have armour, although it would be best if it was not made of metal, as there are more suitable things to make it from that are stronger and lighter than metal."

_Stronger and lighter than metal?_ "There are?"

"Yes. I will design one for you. Now, what colour would you like? Anything."

_I can choose any colour as well? With so much to choose, I'm amazed anything gets done.__ Now, maybe a black cloth with blue shoulder guards and chest plate..._

***

After some searching, Roddick and Millie managed to make their way back to the Clean Room. It took a bit longer than expected, but Roddick had wanted to make the journey without a guide this time. They had expected to talk to Dorne again, but instead they found him asleep on the bed he had been given. The two cadet women who were waiting this side of the clear wall immediately looked up from the light-paper they were using as Roddick and Millie entered the space outside the Clean Room. Roddick followed Millie to the almost-invisible wall that separated them from Dorne.

The two of them stared at Dorne for a minute before saying anything. "Wow, he's asleep. He is asleep, right?" Millie said, turning to the two women who had spent their time here.

The slightly taller woman of the pair confirmed Millie's question is a fast-spoken voice. "That's right. He doesn't look like he's got much worse since the last time you were here. He vomited a few more times, and then decided to sleep, I guess. He didn't seem to be in the mood to talk. That's about it really. The computer scan shows that he's still alive and that his condition has deteriorated only mildly since your previous visit, so there isn't much to talk about."

"We'll let him sleep then for now." Roddick said. "The more rest he gets, the better the shape he'll be in for whatever Ronyx' suggested treatment will be."

Roddick heard footsteps upon the metal floor approaching from around the corner, and he, along with everyone else, turned to face the newcomer. It was a young man with floppy blond hair, and a distinctly less neat uniform in comparison to everyone else Roddick had seen so far appeared.

"Cadet Wuthull, you should take more pride in your appearance" said the fast-spoken woman.

"Yeah, yeah..." the young cadet waved them off and quickly turned to face Roddick and Millie. "Huh, so you're the ones. I saw you earlier and was interested to meet you." He said with the look of someone who was a bit excited and trying to hide it. "So I… err… I thought you might want to know, in the science meeting room they're having a discussion about your friend, I think. Of course, I can't ask myself in there, but I bet they'd let you in if you wanted to."

"Meeting room?" _So, did Ronyx find something then?_

"Yeah, you have meetings in them. Anyway, we should go, you don't want to be late for your first meeting on a galactic ship." The young cadet seemed to think over his words. "This is your first meeting on a galactic ship, right?

"No one said anything to us." Millie said. "Why do you want us to go?"

"They would have invited us if they wanted us there." Roddick added.

"Why not? Is there something wrong with wanting to find out what they're talking about? I know they'll let you in if you show up" the cadet said.

"Millie, Roddick?" said a familiar but weak voice from behind them. Roddick turned around to face Dorne, who was getting up from his bed. Almost immediately, Dorne eyes suddenly bulged and he brought his left hand to his mouth while his right went straight for the nearby bucket. Getting the bucket in front of him just in time, Dorne tried to hide behind it as he let forth more vomit.

For a short amount of time, Roddick could only see the bucket in front of Dorne's face. A few times, he seemed on the verge of putting the bucket down, and a few times and almost threw up again. Eventually, Dorne seemed to decide it was safe to put the bucket back down aside his bed.

"Uggh..." Dorne said, as he lifted his weary eyes to look at Millie. "Huh, hold a moment, weren't you just..."

There was a silence as Dorne looked at them, his face weary and puzzled. _The sickness must be taking its toll on him._

"What?" Millie said with a slight tone of confusion.

Dorne turned his head and looked at his bed for a good few moments, and moved his hand over it, as if he was trying to feel something that wasn't there. His other hand was holding his head, as if he had a headache.

"Dorne, are you alright?"

"I guess not before... but it was just a stupid little thing I imagined. It was nothing, really." However, Dorne looked like he hadn't really convinced himself. "How's progress on the illness?"

"Can't say. Ronyx and Ilia haven't said anything to us so far." Roddick said. "But we'll find out."

Dorne looked back at his bed again for some reason but returned to face Roddick and Millie a few moments later. "I understand."

"Dorne, you haven't even noticed our new clothes yet." Millie said. "I was hoping that you wouldn't be too sick yet."

"What?" Dorne suddenly seemed to become more alert. "Oh, wow. Where did you get those? And, how come they match?"

"Don't look at me" Roddick said, inclining his head towards Millie. "It was her idea."

"Isn't it great? Roddick said he wanted armour in black trimmed with blue, so then I got myself this long skirt in blue trimmed with black so that it would match. And these nice long gloves too. Only the rich women from the capital wear these, so I figure when I get back to the village, all the girls are going to be so jealous." Millie started playing with the string ribbon she now had to hold hair in a ponytail, adjusting it for some reason.

"Millie..." Roddick said slowly.

"Oh, don't worry, I won't rub it in. Well, I might for one day. Or five." Millie had a cheeky look on her face.

Roddick didn't say anything, but held a look of something like 'I know you aren't going to do that'.

"Okay, okay, I won't say anything. You're ruining all the fun I'm trying to plan. And all the guys are going to jealous of your armour, so I don't see why only you should get all the fun."

Roddick returned to the conversation back to Dorne. "Anyway, Dorne, we were thinking about getting you something as well, but Millie said it wouldn't be fair if you didn't also be to choose, so we decided that when you get out of there would be better. To give you something to look forward to."

"Well, okay." Dorne started to look a little happier now, to Roddick's relief. "I'll give it some thought."

"Ah, excuse me." It was Cadet Wuthull. Roddick had forgotten that he was supposed to go somewhere with him to see Ronyx.

"Oh, sorry" Roddick said. "Well, Dorne, looks like we've got to go see Ronyx, so maybe they found something. You should get some rest until then."

"We'll be back! You better thing of something to wear by then!" Millie said as she started to walk away, following Wuthull.

***

Everyone had left, even the two women in yellow uniforms who were supposed to be keeping Dorne company. And in a place like this when everyone else had left, things were completely still. At home, this would never happen, even if was just the possibility of finding a mouse, there would be something moving. A place like this, it was still, silent. There was no day or night, and if it were not for Dorne's condition, then there seemed little difference between spending a day or a year here. Dorne had nothing to do but stare out of the great glass wall at nobody once again.

"What's wrong with me?" Dorne had the feeling that he was not thinking straight. But how could he know? What was Millie doing? "Am I now dreaming a stupid..."

"Foolish little boy."

"Who's there?!"

Dorne spun instantly to face the voice, but there was no one in the Clean Room. His eyes searched around the room, but there were no objects for anything to hide behind, for his bed and anything else of size firmly pressed against the wall. Not even a felworm would be able to remain hidden in a room like this, so who had spoken?

"Your antics have been both entertaining and appreciated, but you are only a distraction to the real story at work."

Dorne felt as though the voice, soft and yet sniggering, had come from outside the Clean Room, beyond the window that showed the stars. From a place outside the _Calnus_ itself. But there was no one that Dorne could see at the window, only darkness.

The voice continued, more serious now. "I don't understand how you struggle and remember that which you cannot, but it's irrelevant. In the end you will be consumed with everything else."

And then there was silence. Dorne stared outside for a long time, but could not make sense of what was happening.

"Is it the illness, or me?"

***

Roddick walked along the straight metal corridor between Millie and cadet Wuthull as they headed towards the science meeting room.

"So, are there lots of places where you meet people like us with your ship?"

"_My_ ship?! Ha! No, that's generally frowned upon, although Captain Kenny is more relaxed about such rules than most." Wuthull turned a corner, and Roddick followed into another corridor with grey walls that looked the same as the one they had just been in. How did people not get lost in a place like this? Wuthull continued talking after a moment. "Of course, I haven't been here that long anyway, I just recently signed up to the military."

"Why?"

"Oh, don't know really. For a long time, I was really lazy, but one day, I just suddenly felt like there was something out there waiting for me. I didn't have any money of my own, so I figured that the best was to get out into space would be to join the military."

"So, what are you looking for?"

"Not sure really. I wouldn't say it's a 'thing', more of a feeling. Anyway, what about you? The Captain didn't tell me or most of us why outsiders had been allowed on board, so everyone on the crew wants to know. All we know is your friend is in the Clean Room, so there are theories that someone in the Federation got infected with some strange disease from your planet."

"That's not quite it. There certainly is a strange disease, but Ronyx didn't mention anything about anyone that wasn't on our planet being infected."

"You get to call the Captain by his first name?" Wuthull said with a touch of jealously. "We only get called by our boring ranks and surnames. Though he did call me by my name a few times."

"What is your first name?"

"Claude."

"Maybe he likes your name or something." Millie said helpfully.

Wuthull looked a bit confused. "I don't think that's it. Still, it would be nice to be like you and be treated a bit specially, I think. Ah, man, to be in your shoes..." Looking down at Roddick shoes, which along with everything else was new, a small grin came onto Wuthull's face. "Heh, nice shoes." Wuthull definitely seemed more relaxed now.

"What's wrong with them?" Roddick asked. They were perfectly good boots after all, with a solid base that would last a long time and made from a thick leather-like material that would not damage easily. Supposedly, you could take a sword or mace to them and they would not be damaged, but Roddick didn't want to test that. Millie had insisted that he get boots that were not ordinary brown or black, so Roddick had gone with a dark blue, which was starting to grow on him, and wasn't outlandish enough to cause comment. Or at least he had thought so, but Wuthull evidently proved otherwise.

"Nothing's wrong! They suit you. But aren't they a bit heavy and tiring for a place like this? I bet I could hear you clanging around from the other end of the ship." Maybe if Roddick ran all day, but Roddick felt that it was good for stamina, so it wasn't a problem.

"I haven't heard any complaints. You know, maybe we should just talk about something else."

"Doesn't matter, we're here." Wuthull stopped in front of a door that was twice as wide as normal, but otherwise unordinary. It had some strange writing on it at eye level in the language of Terran as they called it, but Roddick had not a clue what this one said. Most probably it just said something along the lines of 'Meeting Room'.

After waving the door open, cadet Wuthull stood aside to allow Roddick and Millie through. Roddick was still getting use to the idea of doors that opened without anyone pushing or pulling them, but he could see some people around a large table inside, and Ronyx in front of a board, so he put that small curiosity aside and entered.

***

The first thing that Roddick noted when he entered the meeting room was Ronyx standing in front of a wide, semi-circular shaped table. Behind him was a large white board, as if he wanted to show something, but there wasn't anything on it yet. But Roddick had learnt by now that such boards in this place could be quickly made to show anything, so it no longer surprised him so much, although it was still fascinating. Around the table were a half-dozen other people, although except for Ilia, Roddick was so far unintroduced to them.

As soon as Ronyx took a glance at Roddick and Millie, his hand immediately went to his head, and he muttered something that sounded like 'Oh geez'.

"Cadet Wuthull" Ilia said in a disparaging voice. "Is this your doing?"

"No ma'am. I believe it was Cadet Hurtsis."

"Why are you wearing those clothes?" Ronyx asked.

"I think they look pretty spiffy!" Millie said, as she swung her dress from side to side slightly to show it off, with a bit too much of a grin.

Ronyx still looked a bit shocked, and mumbled downwards such that Roddick could barely hear, although Ronyx' hand gestures were clear enough instruction. "Nevermind. I suppose it makes sense for you to be here. Just sit please. Armour on a spaceship? At least it's not polished..."

There were several spaces at the table, so Roddick chose one that was close to where Ronyx was standing while trying to ignore everyone else who was looking at him. On the other hand, Millie didn't seem to mind the attention she was getting. Roddick thought she may have even been walking to her seat deliberately slowly.

"Well, I've already detailed everyone here about our guest's biology, so now I guess our Captain's turn to tell us about some of their physics." Ilia said.

"Our physics?" Roddick said is a tone that indicated he didn't understand. He looked at Ilia for a moment across the table before looking besides him. "Millie?"

"But even the table's interesting. I wonder what all these coloured things are?" Millie said moving her hand over all the buttons inbuilt. Apparently she had not heard anyone speak her name, and was now talking to herself.

"Ahem!" Ronyx cleared his throat as he stood out in front of the large table at which everyone else was seated. "Well, I'm sure the table is interesting, but for everyone else here, we have made perhaps the most amazing discovery ever." Turning to the screen to right when Millie looked up, he brought up the first image on the monitor. It was a vial containing a sample of the black liquid from Dorne.

"Now this substance... from all our tests so far, it appear to be a perfect black body." he said. There was an audible gasp from some man seated at the table, followed by instant mummers between each person and the one seating next to them.

"Eh?" Millie said, apparently not appreciating that everyone else found this important in some way. "It's black, so what? After everything so far, I was expecting something a bit more impressive."

Roddick followed on. Millie did have a point. "It's making Dorne sick, and all you say is that it's black?"

Ilia looked at them with a sympathetic smile. "I'm afraid you don't quite understand. A 'black body' isn't something that is coloured black, rather it is a substance that absorbs absolutely every piece of light that falls on it. There are only two things in the entire universe that can be considered almost prefect black bodies, they being black holes and the universe itself. Both of which aren't very ordinary. It's impossible for something made of normal material to be a black body."

"But it's right there." Millie said.

"That's the point." Ronyx said. "It violates the known laws of physics for this substance to exist. Yet the virus in Dorne has no trouble producing it. It appears to be a by-product of the virus, but its properties are so remarkable that am I now sure that the virus Dorne is infected with was made just to produce this substance. The genocide of your planet being collateral damage. Whoever did this is a genius."

"Collateral damage?!" Roddick said in a raised voice before he could stop himself.

"But what is the reason?" Ilia asked. "If I knew how to make a black body substance, why would I do it? The Lezonians must be responsible, since it can't be coincidence that they appeared at just the same time as such a remarkable virus. But they are in a war with us now, do they have the time to do this?"

Ronyx nodded. "So, the most obvious reason is for the war itself. But in what way? I can think of a few obvious reasons already. If you coat a ship in this stuff, it would be practically invisible in space. Enemy ships could be tracked by their emissions and the shadows they create, but this would be difficult until we can adjust. A second benefit is the ship would be completely immune to laser based weaponry. And given that our missile technology are laser guided, this makes a ship covered in this black body material practically invulnerable with our current technology. Or you could coat bombs in the material, and just drop them on the enemy. The absorbent paint means they should pass straight through energy shields, and they would be almost impossible to shoot down. So our enemies end up with weapons we can't see and we can't damage. It's no wonder that the Lezonians have been defeating us recently, if they have this on their side."

Everyone at the table was now quiet. Roddick was thinking very seriously about what Ronyx was saying. He didn't know what lasers were, but he knew that invincibility to them must be valuable enough. But there was something else that bothered him. _Presumably, the Lezonians must have ships about the same size as this one._ "Wait, just how many people would have to die to do that?!"

"Ilia closed her eyes and spoke softly. "I'm sorry, but based on the population density of your planet and the infrastructure present, we estimate that at least two million people have disappeared."

"Two... million?!" Millie said. "But, but... how is that..."

"I'm a bit surprised you comprehend that number." Ronyx said.

Roddick found himself reaching for his hip, only he had left his sword in the room he and Millie have been provided for their stay. "I... I will not allow..."

"Calm down. This is a war, you must remain calm in order to think clearly." Ronyx admonished, but Roddick didn't care. "There is unfortunately nothing you can do for those people now, the disease must have been spreading over the planet as a whole for the past half-year. You are lucky enough that it didn't reach your region until very recently."

"Luck?! When I discover those who are responsible, all the luck in the world will not help them!" Roddick realised that he was becoming a spectacle to everyone seated around the table, but he didn't care. He felt his hands tighten, and he worked to suppress the urge to demand that Ronyx find and destroy these Lezonians this instant.

Ronyx stared at Roddick for a good moment, then turned away, giving Roddick the feeling that he had just made a decision about Roddick. With his back still turned, Ilia took over the situation. "Everyone, this meeting is over. Return to your stations."

Everyone around the table started to get out of their chairs and shuffle quietly away except for Ilia, who remained in her seat. Those that left did not do so without an overlong gaze in Roddick and Millie's direction however.

Ronyx spoke in a quiet but steady voice. "Roddick, Millie, if you want to save Dorne, then we will return to him immediately. There is only one suggestion I can make that may save him at this time. I'll tell you about it when we get there."

***

"So you want to freeze me?" Dorne asked.

"Essentially, yes. Given your biology and your genetic convergence, you have a reasonably good chance of surviving the freezing and thawing processes. During that time, the conditions will prevent the virus from doing further damage. Until a cure can be obtained, it is the best way to ensure your survival."

Ilia had explained the process to him twice now, and while Dorne didn't understand the details or things like 'genetic convergence', he was reasonably comfortable with the idea. The alternative was dieing. Dorne had thought a lot about that recently, there was nothing else to do.

"It'll just be like going to sleep." Ilia said gently. "There's no pain, and when you wake up, it'll be like no time has passed for you at all. You don't have to do it, if you don't want to, but for now, it is all we can suggest."

Dorne leaned on the glass wall, keeping to the regions that he hadn't dirtied with his hands and more of the disgusting black vomit. "Fine" Dorne said in a suddenly stronger voice. "Millie, Roddick, if you can't find something soon, then… I want to wake up, and then go home. I don't like this place."

"Dorne..." Millie said.

"I can't stay here. I feel like I've forgotten everything. Roddick, what about your mother? Won't she be worried?"

There was a look of growing realisation on his face. "Well, I guess..." Millie's too, and although Dorne didn't want to do this to her, to take away the short moment of happiness and life without worry that the two of them must have had in this place, it had to be done. They knew that it couldn't last, but when they weren't talking about Dorne, he thought that they must have pushed all that into the back of their minds with their talk of clothes and talking boxes. They must have pushed away the thoughts of all the deaths that had brought them here in the first place. Dorne might make it out of this alive, but for everyone else…

"But you've haven't thought about it at all, really. You too Millie. You've both got so caught up in all this new stuff, you've forgotten everyone at home." They had barely been here a day, so maybe it was too early to say such a thing, but Dorne knew the need anyway. For Millie in particular, reminding them just why they were here in the first place was going to hurt.

And when thinking about himself? His home? It wasn't anything special by his own standards, and much less so now that he had come here, a place where the doors opened themselves, the food served itself, everything did everything by itself. But Dorne remembered the smell of his own floor, the warmth of his parents. His parents? What would they think? They didn't know anything. Everything had happened so fast, no one in Kratus knew anything. His mother and father, they must be falling over themselves in worry. _I don't want them to see me like this._ But it would be worse if they never saw him again at all.

"This isn't my home. I don't want to remain frozen forever. If there isn't a way, then I want to die properly, at home. They deserve that. Okay?"

Neither Roddick nor Millie said anything, but Dorne knew that they would agree.

* * *

**Dictionary: Synthesizer**

The Synthesizer is a device that can produce many different things by recreating the molecular structure of that object. They are only used for creating non-living material, although theoretically they could produce living matter. Use of synthesizers for the creation of living things is an ethical minefield, and is forbidden by Terran Alliance law. As they produce only non-living materials, the margin of error associated with them is higher than transporters.

Synthesizers are also very energy intensive. The method of item creation via synthesis is not unlike how a teleporter re-creates objects after transport, however the synthesizer requires new raw materials to create something, as opposed to the transporter which sends the material the original body was made from.

Synthesizers are usually calibrated and specialized such that they will only made one class of items (such as food only), so that they become less prone to mechanical or programming failure.


	4. C1 04 A Hole in the Universe

**Chapter 1-4: A Hole in the Universe**

**SD346-05-14**

_How could I have forgotten...?_

Millie was alone in her bed in the room she and Roddick had been given. She had gathered all the blankets that she could from Roddick's bed and added them to her own. She had not had the time to use this bed yet, and when she had first seen it, she had really wanted to try it, to see what kinds of beds they had here. But that seemed to long ago now, even though it couldn't be more than a quarter day really. Now the bed was merely the most familiar point of reference where she could be alone in a world where she knew nothing.

She was curled up underneath every sheet and blanket there was. Dorne was right, she had actually forgotten her own father, who was still dying back in Cool! All because of a few flashy lights and a new dress. _I must be the worst daughter in the whole world. I might as well be a demon._

For a long time she stayed there curled up. She thought about trying to sleep, but no matter what she did, she couldn't help her thoughts, repeating over and over.

Sometime later, Millie heard footsteps behind her. But they stayed there for a long time without saying anything, which meant they had to belong to Roddick.

"Go away."

"Millie..." Roddick said, although his voice was slightly muffled from all the blankets she had wrapped around herself.

"I said go away."

There was an audible sigh from Roddick, and Millie responded by pulling the blankets tighter around herself.

"Look I understand. I did the same thing. You shouldn't be so hard on yourself."

"Your mother's not dying this very second is she?!"

"Everything will be alright. There's still hope. Just, just stop crying okay?"

"I'm not crying! Just leave me alone!" Except that now in addition to being the most terrible person in the world, she was also a liar.

There was another sigh, and then Millie heard the door open, and Roddick left. Burying her face into the pillow, all Millie wanted was for the darkness to swallow her.

***

Roddick sat quietly on the metal floor outside of the room he had been given. It was slightly uncomfortable, but there was nothing to sit on and he didn't care anyway. There wasn't really anything he could do though, except to wait for Millie to get out of her guilt by herself. Still, Roddick felt that if he had only remembered this earlier, he could have gently nudged the issue so that Millie would not think of herself that way. Maybe.

It wasn't his father that had been forgotten, so Roddick felt it natural that he wasn't as depressed as Millie might be, but was that right? He had still been distracted by these superficial things when he shouldn't have been. Just because he was better able to keep his enthusiasm about such things more controlled than she didn't mean he had remembered any better. And just because the consequence wasn't as personal didn't mean that he was any less guilty, did it? And now he was wondering about how he should feel, instead of wondering about the condition of Maltoth. And Dorne. Dorne would hopefully be alright now, but by now Maltoth probably wouldn't be so lucky.

His mother was probably still at home in Kratus, unaware of everything. It was unfair to her too.

"What are you doing down there?" It was Ursula. Roddick hadn't even noticed her approach, which was odd, since everything and everyone clanked on these metal floors. He must really be out of it.

"Oh, nothing, I suppose." Roddick said as he quickly stood up. He instinctively started to dust himself off before noting that aboard this ship, there was no real dust to get dirty with.

Ursula eyed Roddick up and down before speaking. "Seeing a person like you here makes me wonder how you got here."

"Ronyx found us, and took us in." Surely she must have known that, everyone else on the ship did.

"However, that should not have happened… procedure dictates that contact with underdeveloped planets inhabitants be avoided. The captain surely would have pre-examined the area to avoid that situation. The first location they chose would have been far from humanoids and isolated ideally. Why were you there?"

"On Mount Metorx? We… we were looking for an herb to cure the disease."

"On the mountain?"

"Yes. It's a legend around there." Compared to the marvels he had witnessed this day, Roddick felt a little embarrassed when describing how he would cure this disease.

"And you live nearby?"

"So?"

"It sounds like an antiquated custom. I have heard of such things on many planets, and not just underdeveloped ones such as yours."

"What do you mean?"

"You have stories of an herb that can supposedly cure the disease, but no one knows what it is. But it just happens to be conveniently on a very nearby mountain? That sounds unlikely."

"Is that an insult?" Probably not, or at least not intentionally, but Roddick had no idea what Ursula was trying to say.

"No. But given our perspective as outsiders, it seems rather odd. Why not collect this herb that cures everything before? Why not grow it yourself? If it is so close, discovering it would be a major health benefit, everyone would be doing it."

Roddick's mind fell into thought. What Ursula was saying made some kind of sense. Suggestions of growing it in the village would be much more useful. So why didn't they? Had they tried and failed perhaps? But then it wouldn't be regarded as legendary if they knew it existed, right? Herbs had never really been Roddick's thing, but Millie would know. Surely there must be some reason. But whatever it was, the fact that Roddick didn't know was perhaps the most disturbing thing.

"Lieutenant Silestri has requested my presence in the Stasis Room. And since I have run into you, I think it appropriate that I ask you to come. It's time to place your friend into stasis, so let us go."

Roddick gazed at the closed grey door to his own room. "How long does this process take?"

"They're still in the set-up stage I believe. Most probably there is an hour until he's put into final stasis."

An hour, a fairly long period of time, if Roddick remembered and understood the term correctly. "So for this hour, Dorne will still be awake, and can still talk?"

"That is correct."

There was no way Millie wouldn't want to say goodbye to Dorne, even if she was feeling miserable. But a little more time for her to recover might do her some good. There should be time Millie to come still. "Alright, let's go."

***

The first thing that Roddick saw upon entering the Stasis Room was Dorne lying down in some sort of bed. But this one was much thinner than most, and the head, foot and sides were all raised, leaving Dorne sunken somewhat in the middle. And over the top, separating Dorne from everyone else, as a partly transparent blue sheet of this 'glass', or something like it. The head of the bed was placed against the wall, and all the other sides of the bed had numerous buttons and labels that Roddick could not read. The bed also seemed to make squelching sounds, indicating some sort of liquid inside moving noisily. Ilia stood to one side of the bed, alternating between looking a glowing tablet thing in her hand and taping her fingers at buttons on the wall. Wuthull was kneeling down aside the bed, and looked intently at the panel, but didn't seem to be actually doing anything to it.

"Roddick, you're here. I was wondering what was taking you so long. Look, I need to say, I was sorry about before." Dorne said as soon Roddick came up to the side of the bed.

"No, Dorne, you were right, we did forget" Roddick said.

"Maybe, but still I shouldn't have…"

Roddick tried wave his arm to cut him off before he could say any more. "Look, let's just leave it at that, alright?" What was done could not be undone.

Dorne's face lightened a little. "Alright then. So, what's going to happen?"

"Millie and I will try and go back to Cool as soon as you're asleep." Roddick noticed that Ilia visibly shifted, and seemed to be about to say something, but she didn't. Why was that?

Dorne next question was understandably more serious. "How is Millie?"

"She's still angry at herself. But I think she'll realise soon enough that if she cares so much that she forgot, then she's not really a bad person because of it."

Dorne started to stare at the ceiling, but he's eyes didn't look like they were focused. Not sure what to say, Roddick let the silence hang in the air.

Wuthull commented on their lack of dialogue with a droll tone. "Wow, you guys sure have a lot to talk about, huh?"

"What's to say really?" Dorne said back. Wuthull didn't seem to have anything to say to that.

_Just how should someone act in a situation like this?_

Noticing that Ronyx was missing, Roddick asked the first obvious question he could think of to break the silence. "Where is the Captain?"

"Oh" Ilia said, halting her task to answer the question. "Ronyx was unfortunately unable to join us. While he is of course extremely interested in what is going on here, the responsibilities of being Captain mean that he does not get to do as he wishes all the time."

There was something else that Roddick wanted to ask, about something that was bothering him about this whole stasis thing. But he was slightly nervous about bringing it up, as it would probably sound silly. After all, there was no way that this would have been suggested if the process was suspected of being likely to cause harm that would not happen otherwise, but still...

"Dorne, what do you think it will be like being dead for a while?"

"Wha?" interjected Wuthull. "Who's dying?"

"I'm dying?!" Dorne said, his voice suddenly a few pitches higher.

_Maybe I shouldn't have phrased it that way._ Roddick felt a bit uneasy, but now that he was here, there was nothing to do but continue. "I mean, I think, that if you get frozen, you won't be able to think, right? It's not like sleeping, where you can still think as you dream, is it?" Roddick thought that was sufficient justification to avoid anyone thinking it a foolish question, but how to know until he tried?

"Yes..." Ilia said but she stretched it out with a wary tone, as if she wasn't quite sure where this was taking her. She stopped tinkering with the control panel on the side of the bed, but quickly indicated to Wuthull and Ursula that they were not to stop when they tried to copy her.

Roddick continued his trail of thought out loud. "So, if he's not thinking, and he's not doing anything such as breathing, then he's just like a corpse in what he can do."

"I guess that's one way of putting it..." Ilia said "But he won't be dead, because we can bring him back from it." Roddick only now realised that Dorne had been holding his breath when he released it.

"So, he's dead, but only for a short while then." Roddick said.

Ilia looked like she had grudgingly accepted Roddick's idea. Or she was frustrated because Roddick couldn't understand her way but didn't want to say so. Which one, Roddick didn't know. "Yeah. He's kinda dead, but really 'dead' dead, and not forever." Roddick didn't feel as if the conversation was going so badly now, at least.

"But if for some reason, we could never wake him up..." Roddick quickly turned to Dorne to show that he was well aware of what he was talking about with him there. "Not that I would suggest that, of course..." Roddick then quickly faced Ilia again because he could let himself see Dorne's facial expression. "Then from his point of view, it would be as if he died now, not later? So then it's like he's dead, but not forever."

"I guess you have a point, if you think about it that way." Ilia said. "But it's not really something you have to worry about. We will bring him back, and soon, regardless of a cure if that is really what Dorne wants."

Feeling somewhat satisfied, Roddick realised in his conversation with Ilia, that he actually hadn't gotten an answer from Dorne yet. Dorne himself was again staring at the ceiling, no doubt thinking his impending sleep. Just what would he feel, in the void? Roddick would have to wait until they found a cure to this terrible virus and revived him to ask.

***

Millie felt like she had been asleep for a very long time. There was no way to be sure, however. In reality, it may have only been a few moments. But during that time, she felt she had a soothing dream, to which she could now not remember in the slightest. She did feel a little better now for herself. However, she also felt there was something wrong in the real world, and nearby. But she was unwilling to get up to look, so she strained herself to hear. But she could make no sense of anyone breathing, nor had she heard the door open. They could have come in before she had awoken of course. But she didn't think that was the case.

"Roddick?"

There was no response. Maybe she was just imagining it. It didn't feel exactly like Roddick, if such a thing could be said, but there was some similarity. But surprisingly, despite the great number of blankets wrapped around her, she suddenly started to feel cold. Cold enough for her to shiver.

"It doesn't matter what your father thinks of you, he's nobody, he's easily forgotten and he's dead. What does a memory of dead man, outgrown of his usefulness, matter to us? Now get up and face me, foolish little girl."

Millie was so shocked that for a moment she didn't do anything to interrupt the voice. Then, in panic, she scrambled to stand on her bed, throwing the blankets and sheets in all directions wildly, and took a look at the one who had invaded her room.

But there was no person, only a gaping hole in the air. A perfectly black emptiness in the middle of the room. It seemed completely round, half as tall as Millie herself and it had no texture at all. Millie thought that if she were to touch it, there would be nothing to touch. And looking into it, Millie thought she could see forever. And Millie _knew_ that it was looking into her.

An echoing voice emanated from the rift in space. "Hmph. Even though I know exactly what to expect, when I see you in person now, I can't help but think that you're surprisingly pathetic." It was not at all what Millie had thought would happen. Then again, she hadn't time to think of anything that would make sense when confronted by an opening in the world.

"Who are you?!" Millie was wide-awake now, and her mind rushed to think of anything she could use in self-defence. She had Heraldry tattoos and the majority of what she knew was directed at healing. But she knew a few other things and she had to try something, anything. Muttering as quickly as she could, she created a rune in front of herself to act as a shield. Floating in the air between Millie and the talking hole in space, the flat disc was as about as wide as the gaping hole and floated vertically, glowing with white mysterious letters, to defend its creator.

"Still not impressive. I know you can do better than this." The echoes of the voice grew heavier with each word.

Millie tried to make her voice somewhat commanding, hoping that it would help. "What are you?! Why are you here?!"

"I follow. Your traitorous stench has shown herself again, and here I am. That unforgivable, loathsome stench! A cancer that thinks she can manipulate you. To think she would try and escape me!"

Millie's eyes darted around the room, first to Roddick's sword, which was lying upon his bed. But the gapping hole was between her and the sword, so she grabbed the closest thing she could find that was large enough to swing. It was some sort of metal pole, slightly shorter than she was, and it had several small orbs near the tip. Millie was told earlier that these orbs were lights, although they weren't turned on at the moment. Hefting it in front of her, she was unsure exactly how it could help in a fight against a hole, but at a time like this, Millie was willing try do anything.

So now she was standing on her bed, wondering what to do. Could she get out the door? The hole had made no indication that it was moving, if it was even capable of such a thing. The shield Millie had created was still there between them, but the light it emitted showed nothing on the dark sphere.

Remaining on the bed for now and keeping herself facing the black hole, Millie took one nervous step towards the door to see what would happen. The black hole shifted slightly, as if to block her, although it did not seem to actually come any closer to Millie herself, and it stopped moving as soon as Millie did. Given its position, Millie judged it easily capable of blocking her before she made it there.

Slowly bending down while grimacing, Millie picked up the pillow of her bed in one hand. The hole did not react as she could see, so she faked an action as if to throw the pillow. The hole still did not react. After a moment, Millie mentally commanded her shield to move to the left for a moment, and threw her pillow as hard as she could at the hole. The pillow did not quite fly as Millie had intended, and hit the edge of the glowing shield, bouncing off it and just scrapping the hole before landing on the metal floor on the far side of the room. But while the hole was completely unaffected as far as Millie could tell, the pillow was now only half its former self. The part of it that had entered the whole had vanished, leaving the remainder to fall to the ground.

"How in that..." Millie stammered. "What is this?!"

The hole seemed vibrated or pulse, and replied with something that Millie was unable to make sense of. In a voice that was not loud, but had the weight of the world behind it, it spoke.

"If there was no forgiveness…  
And your dreams were taken away…  
If there was nothing to fill the emptiness…  
What would you do?"

The black hole started to move, as it were, though it was impossible to tell for sure. It may have simply been slowly growing, both would look identical. Millie watched anxiously to see how the heraldry shield would react on contact.

The shield started to shimmer as the hole drew closer. Then it started to bend and warp towards the hole, and the hole seemed to pull all the light of around it into itself. Then suddenly, the whole barrier fell was draw into the hole, and vanished. The hole continued to move closer to Millie, unaffected so far as Millie could tell by the presence and now absence of her barrier.

Changing direction, Millie started to edge the other way along the perimeter of the room. This would take Millie around the back of the room, and then to Roddick's bed. After that, Millie wasn't quite sure how she could get out.

***

"It's pretty cold in here, Roddick." Dorne said. Despite the chill, he managed to keep himself from stuttering.

Ilia, now on the ground looking at the side of the bed with Wuthull replied "That's the point. By being frozen, the virus will also be frozen." Ilia had looked over the edge of the bed to speak, and now returned to her crouching position to concentrate on whatever it was on the bed's side.

"I just hope that I don't throw up in here." Now that things were actually happening, Dorne felt lighter.

"Most probably, the drugs we gave you should prevent that from happening. You can never really tell with untested species, but it should be safe enough for just this once." Ursula didn't look or get up from her panel on the left side of the bed at all, so Dorne couldn't see her talk.

"Don't remind me." Dorne said back to Ursula, although the comments applied to everyone else in the room as well. They drugs had been given to him by 'injecting using needles'. The first time Ilia had explained to him that they were going to stab him on purpose to drain blood, back when they were examining him, he had found it a tad disturbing.

"Say Dorne, the blue in your face reminds of the time we went sailing and you fell off. By the time we got back to land, you claimed you were so cold that you could breathe snow" Roddick said.

"Yeah, I remember that. My face is blue?"

"Well… not super-blue. More blue than normal. Just a bit like that time, is all."

"You could have shown me more support though back then, and you especially should not have told Millie first thing when we got back to land. And why are you thinking of that now? The water wasn't that cold. Anyway, I don't think you should get sidetracked at a time like this." Dorne fingers and toes were starting to feel numb and this tail was feeling rather uncomfortable and falling asleep. Although this was partly because Ilia had told him that he should be laying on his back and not his side, in this position Dorne felt that his tail could not curl comfortably.

"Sorry, my mind just suddenly whispered the image of the boat rocking and you falling off to me all of a sudden." Roddick held his head, but Dorne could see a smile remembering that time hiding behind his hand.

"Hmph."

Dorne heard light but clear footsteps of someone entering the room the same way that Roddick had, but from his vantage point, Dorne had to wait until the owner's form came into view and stood behind Roddick.

"Millie..." he mouthed very quietly, but Roddick still caught the words from the shape his mouth made.

"What about her?" Roddick asked. "Dorne, are you alright? You have a funny expression on your face."

_So, it's happening again, is it?_

"Roddick, what's going on behind you?" Dorne felt it better to sure.

Roddick quickly turned his head and looked straight though 'Millie' and down the corridor. "There's nothing there" he said as he turned back. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing. It's nothing, apparently." _If this keeps up, losing my mind will be worse than dying._

"But that's not true at all" the visage of Millie said. She continued to speak, but Dorne decided that if he was going crazy due to the sickness or some other reason, there was no need to indulge it. Let the mirage speak if she wanted, it wasn't anything but his thoughts coming back to him. "You need to remember our previous conversation when you awake, it's..."

Without warning, the lights in the room dimmed. They didn't turn off though, and for a moment Dorne felt like the room was suddenly night time. Almost instantly, they were back to normal.

"What was that?" Dorne asked tensely. Should he try to get up? Should he remain where he was? This seemed far from normal.

"Already?" said 'Millie', with an anxious look on her face. She turned and ran out the door that she had come in, making loud footfalls that everyone else was deaf to.

"Don't know, we just had a drop in power for a moment, and then..." Wuthull said in a puzzled tone as he moved away from the stasis bed to examine some coloured panel on the wall aside the bed, his fingers rapidly moving and tapping parts of the console.

Once again, the lights dimmed, but this time they would return. A moment later, the whole room was filled with a red light that slowly changed intensity.

"Wuthull, Hurtsis, I need to know what is happening now!" Ilia yelled. At the same time, she was tapping something quickly with right hand into the wristband she wore on her left arm. Both of the junior officers were already going through various screens, reading and discarding the information to look at new ones faster than Dorne could see. But whatever it was, there was a clear sense of barely hidden panic about them. Roddick looked stunned with his mouth gapping, like Dorne, his ignorance must have made him feel helpless in this situation.

Ursula was the first to reply. "A massive power drain is occurring. Source unidentified."

"A power drain? Now?! We can't let that happen now in the middle of a cold stasis procedure, or during Ronyx' meeting!" Ilia sounded both worried and a little more panicked, and that meant Dorne was worried and more than just a little panicked.

"The backup for the stasis units is working properly on emergency power..." Wuthull began, but Ilia cut him off as soon as she heard the important information.

"What about the rest of the ship?!" Ilia demanded.

"The power drain is coming from the residential quarters. Locating... specifically, the drain is localised around room one-nine-el-nine-six." Ursula said, staying calm.

Dorne could see an intense expression on Roddick's face, as he seemed to be trying to remember why that room number should be significant. It didn't mean anything to Dorne, but Roddick suddenly seemed to realise as he silently mouthed half a word of something that Dorne thought probably wasn't a very nice thing to hear. Roddick spun in place and raced out the door as quickly as he could.

* * *

**Dictionary: Cold Stasis**

A technology developed by the Terran Alliance, it allows living beings to be quick frozen, halting their bodily processes without causing fatal damage. The bodies can be 'thawed' at a later any time, effectively resurrecting them without ill effect or change. Originally developed as a method of star ship crews to survive journeys in space that were expected to last hundreds of years, this purpose disappeared with the advent of faster-than-light travel.

Cold Stasis is still used for other purposes, such as stabilising injured persons until proper treatment can be arranged, and all Federation ships are equipped with Stasis facilities for whenever they are needed.


	5. C1 05 Interrupted by Nothing

**Chapter 1-5: Interrupted by Nothing**

**SD346-05-14**

Ronyx sat at the largest table on the ship. Capable of seating over thirty humanoids, he was joined by as many scientists, diplomacy experts and military strategists as the ship could spare. And around them were twenty ready soldiers dressed in the deep blue of the Terran Alliance Military, armed with phase guns and gauss rifles. Assisting the heavily armed soldiers automated hovering defence robots whose sole purpose was to carry around deadly weaponry in a small spherical frame. The room lighting upon all these personnel was slightly dimmed except for Ronyx himself, to give a subtle but deliberate atmosphere of power to him. Of course, these psychological tactics would be known to those sitting across from him, but that didn't mean that they wouldn't work.

Opposite all this were all of five Lezonians.

The Lezonians, with pale blue skin under heavy clothing, looked positively meek in comparison. With only five members, none of which were armed, this was a clear demonstration of who was in charge at this meeting. Ronyx could hardly believe that the military these five represented could at this moment threaten the Federation so seriously, yet now they wanted is talk so desperately that they were willing to undergo such humiliating conditions to do so. Ronyx made a point to not push too much light on the Lezonians, they looked uncomfortable enough already. Despite the war, this wasn't an interrogation, and they had volunteered themselves to be here.

Although they had put on a brave front so far, Ronyx felt that the Lezonians had not sent their best negotiators. Perhaps their best would not be willing submit themselves to such conditions. These ones were doing their best, but it was clear to Ronyx that they were giving out more information and more quickly than Ronyx had expected from them. So far, Ronyx really didn't have to do much aside from listen to everything.

For their side, the Lezonians had given up quite a tale. Although they were a powerful space-faring civilisation, another far more powerful one had forced them to undertake aggression against the Terran Alliance, and provided them with the Black Body liquid needed for the Lezonians to stand as a credible threat against Federation. It was only now, supposedly, that the Federation had discovered the source planet of the secret weapon that the Lezonians felts that they couldn't hide much longer and had voluntarily shown themselves. Ronyx found it rather unbelievable, but could not determine what their true intentions were.

"So, I wish to know. You called the civilisation that forced your aggression as from the planet 'Fargett', is that right? Who is their leader, and for what reason have they forced your actions against us?"

The five Lezonians quickly huddled together, whispering behind their long thin hands. After half-a-minute, they stopped, and the leader of the Lezonians, earlier identified as Polok, spoke in a clear voice. "We don't know the reply to either of those questions."

"You don't?" Ronyx said. He found that hard to believe. Evidently, a large number of the men and women seated around him agreed, based on the murmurs he heard from them. But Ronyx was in charge of this meeting and it was important for him to not give the impression one way or the other, at least not yet. Best to move them onto another topic then rather than let this one hang. Ronyx made a note to come back to the point about the true aggressor later on the data pad in front of him, and then quickly thought about his next question.

"The Black Body liquid, how did you obtain it?"

Again, the Lezonians huddled before the same one answered for all of them. Their group unity seemed a slight imitation of Ronyx' own, except Ronyx had forty people aside him to demonstrate the Federation's forces cohesion. "A virus was engineered for us, to infect certain native inhabitants of the planet we now orbit, Roak."

Well, that did seem reasonable at least based on the Federation researchers had uncovers thus far. "Do you have a cure for this disease?"

"Why? Only the Felpool of planet Roak are vulnerable, the disease poses no threat to you."

"I have other reasons" Ronyx interrupted. "Do you have a cure?"

"No, it was given to us as you see it now by Fargett." There was a slight pause as Polok seemingly considered his next response. "I… I do not think they have a cure either."

"That's not what I wanted to hear." Ronyx said, a slight tone of dissatisfaction creeping into his voice.

Ronyx's noticed that one of his scientists, an outspoken middle-aged woman named Dr. Gumist sitting several spaces to his right, had a question she wanted to ask. He redirected lighting and the microphones to focus around her, which also let her know that she could direct her questions to the Lezonians.

"Is the virus a modification of an existing virus?" Gumist asked. _That could be useful question_, Ronyx thought to himself. Even if the Lezonians didn't have a cure, the Federation could perhaps make one quickly if they had somewhere to start. On the other hand, if Fargett had created the virus from scratch, the Alliance was probably well out of its depth.

"Not a virus. We know it was based the DNA of a humanoid that…"

Do you have the original organism it was based on?" Gumist interrupted, more loudly this time. Gumist was a quick thinker and had spoken her follow-up question before Polok was finished, which was not unusual from what Ronyx knew of her, but she usually asked such questions when talking with her peers. Not talking over the top of a civilisation the Terran Alliance was at war with. A lack of diplomacy in a time like this was not what Ronyx needed, so as soon as she finished speaking he cut her microphone and had the Lezonians focus their answer back at him. It would probably anger her a little, but she would get over it and given the circumstances she wasn't a top priority.

"No, the virus was created approximately three hundred years ago, based on the great being called 'Asmodeus', from the planet Roak." Polok said, slightly more irritated now.

_Three hundred years ago? That would make it impossible to obtain a sample of this 'Asmodeus' and use it to engineer a cure._ "Tell me about this 'great Asmodeus' later." Ronyx decided to stop the conversation on a cure there. While many in his own crew knew why he would be interested in such a thing, many were also expecting him to act as leader of the Federation in this case, and that meant having his priorities straight.

"You do not know of 'Asmodeus'?" The lead Lezonian seemed a little surprised. "He's the..."

Without warning the entire room was plunged into darkness. In the confusion, Ronyx heard the sound of every soldier in the room readying their weapon.

***

Roddick ran down the steel corridors of Ronyx's ship towards the room Millie must be in. There was no way to know what was happening, but Roddick knew he had to be there, if there was the possibility of danger...

Roddick had no problem working his way through the maze-like series of tunnels. When he had first arrived, he had known that he would become lost several times, but now he found himself running as fast as he could, his feet clanging loudly, and there was no doubt on the turns he had to make to find Millie's room. The lights in the corridors where unreliable, flickering on and off, sometimes white and sometimes red, and all the while a loud whining noise was being produced from every direction. He passed scores of the ship's crew on the way, each of them also running about in every direction, but where they were going was not something that Roddick cared about.

As Roddick turned the last corner and saw ahead of him the door to their room, the screeching alarm ceased for no reason that he could discern. But while Roddick was still thirty or so strides from his target, the door to his room opened by itself. As Roddick slowed down in preparation, Millie suddenly appeared out of the door, clutching Roddick's sheathed sword in one hand and some weird stick as tall as she was in the other. Without looking around, she turned away and started to run as quickly as she could down the corridor in the direction away from Roddick.

"Millie!" Roddick yelled.

At his voice, Millie suddenly stopped and turned, recognising him right away. She had an anxious look on her face.

"Roddick! There's this… this 'thing' in there, we have to run away…" Millie said while trying to make some sort of round shape with her hands. Roddick had no idea what she was trying to mean.

Millie stopped her act as Roddick gasped at what he saw come out of their room. It was a hole, in the air! _Just what in the name of the Seven Devils was that?!_

The hole floated in the middle of the corridor between them. Roddick felt the air suddenly become cooler. A large number of the crew were also gathering, many of them soldiers bearing weapons all pointed towards the hole, but none had yet attempted fire. Some were murmuring and some were yelling at others, mostly in confusion.

"Millie, go up one floor!" Roddick yelled while pointing his right arm into the air.

Nodding in agreement, Millie ran away from the hole, past a few confused crewmembers of the ship and towards a door leading to a staircase. On Roddick's side, he did the same. Roddick ran up the stairs, three at a time, and came out in a corridor that looked just like the one below it, with the critical absence of that… hole thing. Roddick saw Millie enter the corridor from her corresponding staircase a moment after he did. She immediately fixed eyes on Roddick and started running towards him.

Meeting in the centre of the corridor, Millie grabbed onto Roddick and started shaking him. "Roddick, it's this hole! It just appeared in my room! We have to escape!"

Just as Millie finished speaking, the ground underneath them suddenly seemed to become unstable, bending downwards. The pair jumped away from the depression as one, and saw that the hole was slowly making its way up through the floor.

"Damn! Just what is this thing?!" Roddick said.

"I don't know! It just appeared out of nowhere!" Millie replied tensely.

The hole in space floated above what was the corridor floor, but was now nothing but an empty space through which Roddick could see the corridor below where he had just been.

"Run." The hole commanded. Roddick had the feeling it was toying with them from the tone, and he didn't like the idea of listening to something that was clearly trying to harm him, but he saw little other option. Millie shoved Roddick's sword into his hand, and then started to leave, and Roddick followed. He thought about drawing his sword, but against this enemy, it seemed a useless effort, so there was nothing to do but run away. On a closed ship like this, Roddick didn't know how if were possible to get away, but what else was there to try?

***

_Sabott?_

_Why are you here?_

_They can't do anything._

_You can't do anything._

_You know this._

_This world is mine._

_And you can't have it._

_You chose to leave me._

_So you chose to leave everything._

_You took my dream from me._

_YOU'RE unforgivable._

_Your part in this world… every world ends here._

_And I'll reclaim my dream._

_Now and Forever._

***

While standing with Roddick behind the row of soldiers with weapons pointed at the enigma what was the hole, Millie considered creating another shield. She had only tried her heraldry once while she was here, and not had the chance for anyone else to be around at the time, so perhaps these people knew other and better crests that may be effective, but for the time being, these soldiers seemed content to use their 'guns'. And then she considered that her shield had been useless before and that the hole did not attack by use of weaponry, so there seemed little point trying again.

There was a loud explosion, as the five soldiers, side-by-side filling the narrow corridor, fired their weapons simultaneously at the Hole. But as Millie thought, and was afraid of, there seemed to be absolutely no effect upon it. After the five soldiers had fired several shots each, they dropped their weapons and each soldier drew another, smaller gun from their waist, aiming at the Hole.

This time, there was a bright flash from the weapons, and Millie got the impression that the weapon shot light, but it still did nothing. The soldiers were clearly frustrated as well as confused, and they seemed to be having difficulty using these smaller guns they way they wanted. The Hole continued to slowly progress towards the group, unfazed by these events.

"Damn, what is this thing?!" one soldier said.

"It's draining all the nearby power, our weapons aren't working right. We have to retreat!" yelled the one next to him.

The five soldiers broke rank, and Millie saw Roddick indicating that it was time to be running again. Running was all they had done so far, but everything they could think of throwing at it simply disappeared into the abyss. As they ran, behind them Millie saw one of the soldiers give her a dirty look, as if it were somehow her fault this invincible monster was here.

They passed into a corridor on the side of the ship, and to Millie's right the wall was clear, showing the darkness of space. It was pretty much exactly the same darkness as that thing that was following them. For a moment, Millie thought there might be a hundred more of these things, floating outside, and she would never see them, but she had to keep running.

Ahead of her, Roddick suddenly slowed for a moment, and Millie saw that it was the familiar figure of Ronyx appearing. Around him were several dozen other people, including a few people with pale blue skin that Millie had never seen before. Some of the people surrounding Ronyx had their weapons pointed at the blue people, and some had their weapons aimed in Millie's direction.

"Ronyx, you have to do something!" Roddick yelled, pointing back at the Hole.

"What is this?!" Ronyx demanded.

"No idea! It just appeared!" Millie said as she and Roddick reached Ronyx and stepped in behind his soldiers.

"Now... we can begin…" a voice came from the hole. "Let's just see how much pain is enough…"

The hole stopped moving altogether a couple dozen paces away from them, while at the same time, everyone surrounding Ronyx who didn't have a weapon, including the blue people, disappeared out of every door they could find. After they disappeared, there was a moment when nothing happened. Then, the Millie felt the air go cold again, and the lights in the hallway started to flicker before returning to normal.

"Fire!" yelled someone that Millie didn't see, some older man with authority. A broken series of light flashes and metal bullets were shot at the hole, once again having no effect at all.

"Get out of the way and cover your ears." Ronyx said from behind Millie. He pulled Millie and Roddick and had them stand against the wall. "A bazooka in a corridor like this is a very bad idea..." Ronyx said quietly to himself, as if to argue the decision he must have made to use it here, and while he did so he placed two small black cups over his ears. Millie saw him indicate to her to cover her ears, so she did. A soldier with funny coverings on his ears came past, hefting a long, rectangular tube upon his shoulder. He knelt down and used both hands to aim the tube at the hole, looking through some sort of green targeting sight to do so.

"Fire" Ronyx said. The kneeling soldier pulled the trigger, and Millie witnessed a small metal canister fly out of the 'bazooka', with a large trail of fire and smoke behind it. Then Ronyx turned his head away, and Millie saw all the people behind her had also turned away to not look, except for a few who also had some black sheet covering their eyes as well as their ears, whatever they were. Millie copied and also looked away.

Millie stayed like that, not looking and her ears blocked, and began to wonder what was supposed to happen. It was only when those that had remained facing the hole gasped that Ronyx let go of her and Roddick, allowing her to see what had happen. But Millie knew what must have happened. Again, the hole in space simply floated in the air, and whatever this bazooka weapon was supposed to do, it evidently hadn't done it.

"Order a retreat to the next section!" Ronyx said loudly towards the soldiers. They all nodded agreement, but as they started to move away, the hole spoke again.

"You can't run away."

Millie noticed that there was a sudden breeze in the corridor, her hair and dress starting to flutter about. Then the breeze became a strong wind, and Millie started to fear that the hole was trying to suck her and everything in! Before it was too late, Millie ran into the nearest doorway, on her left where she had first seen Ronyx come from, to escape right behind Ronyx, Roddick and several other soldiers who evidently had the same thoughts. She was now in a very large room, with a very large table that had apparently just been in use. Outside in the corridor, there were other persons running away both further into the corridor and into the room where Millie was. Many of them were yelling, but it was so hard to hear what they were saying with all the words mixed together.

"What can we do about this?!" Millie heard Roddick yell towards Ronyx. There wasn't any answer that she could hear though. As the wind grew stronger still, the chairs around the table started shifting towards the door, and then lifted, crashed into the corridor before presumably falling into the abyss.

There was a large inhuman groan from all around her. "What was that?!" Millie yelled at Ronyx.

"It sounds like the ship's metal is warping!" Ronyx screamed back in her general direction. Ronyx looked very, very scared as he said it, which made Millie even more scared than she thought she was.

"Stay as close to the wall as you can!" Roddick said.

The first sign that something wrong in this room was happening were the yells of soldiers to her left, past Roddick and Ronyx. Half of them leapt away from the wall, and were instantly caught up in the furious winds without a hold on to anything that was solid. They were dragged towards the doorway, where they frantically grabbed on to avoid being pulled out altogether. The three soldiers remained next to the wall at the warping point fell into the wall with it, which Millie could see was warping outwards, towards the corridor.

Suddenly, the wall ripped open with a tremendous roar, and those soldiers that had chosen to stay at the wall were dragged through it. The wind reversed direction to force its way through the new opening. Millie gripped tightly on the wall with one hand and held to Roddick with the other.

It was then, while she held on for her life, that Millie began to feel very strange. It was sort of a calming sensation, she didn't know why. This was most certainly not the time to feel that way though.

"What are you…? Sabott?" the Hole spoke. But it was different. The tone of the voice was the same, but to Millie, it felt as if the voice had lost its menace and replaced it with confusion.

"How have you…?"

All of a sudden, the Hole stopped its vacuum, and the room was suddenly silent except for the Hole, apparently speaking to itself or the invisible air. Everyone around the room was either staring at it, or deciding if they should try to run.

"That treasonous stench."

The void seemed to quiver, and then its shape warped. It ceased to be perfectly round, and became elongated vertically, slightly shorter than Millie, before returning to its previous spherical form.

"Buying time? How pointless… I'll devour you too."

The void warped its shape again, this time becoming like a flat disc in the air. Then it moved slightly to the side, accompanied by gasps from the last two soldiers on the far wall as they were in its path, but almost immediately after starting the hole stopped moving. It was now changing in shape constantly. Just what kind of struggle, and with who, was this thing in?

"Roddick, I don't know what's happening, but now's our chance!" Millie yelled.

"Let's get somewhere safer!" Roddick said automatically.

"Where?! If we run, it'll just chase us again!"

Roddick tensed and started speaking to himself. "Umm… if we can't get off the ship and away, then we have to get the hole off the ship."

Roddick looked thoughtful for a moment, and then interrupted Ronyx as he was giving order to the soldiers. "Ronyx, can you rock the ship and make this monster fall off?"

"Rock the ship?" Ronyx looked a little puzzled for a moment.

Millie picked up on the idea. "Yeah. It goes through walls, so if we can do that, it'll fall off!"

Ronyx looked doubtful. "Even if it is a black hole, it seems able to keep itself spatially located..."

"You have any better ideas?" Roddick said.

"Not really." Ronyx clicked on his communicator located on his wrist. "Bridge, this is Captain Kenny. I want you to disable the Artificial Gravity and Acceleration Damping, while simultaneously accelerating the Calnus to the starboard side at maximum safe G-force level."

"You want what?!" came back a slightly hard to hear and completely shocked voice.

"Just do it, ASAP!"

"In ten seconds!" came a reply. Ronyx quickly shut of his wrist communicator and sat down with his back against the wall.

Ronyx stood up so that everyone in the room was looking at him. "Everyone grab on to something tight, this is probably going to hurt!" Ronyx then sat down again and placed both arms over his head. Everyone who hadn't already done the same quickly copied him.

"I thought we already were, and it already was…" Millie said under her breath so that no one could hear her.

The hole was still changing its shape somewhat erratically, but was not moving nor speaking. Millie was mystified about what it really was doing, but that was something she really should worry about later. She got the sense that something both good and bad was happening to it, but way she felt that way, she couldn't say. And what could possibly be 'good' or 'bad' was also unknown to her.

Millie sat with the doorframe to her right and Roddick to her left and waited. She tightly closed her eyes in preparation. Waiting for something that was probably going hurt was always the worst part.

There was a very loud crash, so much so that Millie instinctively let her arms move to cover her ears. At the same time, her body was jolted backwards into the wall.

The next thing Millie knew, see was lying on the floor face down. She could see the floor along the right side of her vision, and she was looking at where the Black Void had just been, but was now no longer. It was gone!

Also, something heavy had fallen on top of upon her. Awkwardly shaped, it was digging into her back. It moved slightly with a groan, telling Millie what it just was.

"Roddick! I'm the girl here, you're supposed to fall first so I have something soft to land on!" It seemed appropriate somehow, to loosen the tension, with the monster gone. And it was true.

Roddick mumbled something that Millie couldn't make out as he stood, but she was sure it was some sort of complaint. He still offered his hand in assistance though.

There were numerous groans from around the room. But the majority of soldier had fared much better than she had. Must be all that training. A few were looking at the place were the hole had just been with tears in their eyes. Those soldiers that had fallen in, Millie supposed, would not be coming back.

Ronyx spoke into his wrist again "Bridge, restore systems to normal, and give the Calnus a complete check for any abnormal status. Continue to travel in this current direction at maximum speed for at least fifty thousand kilometres."

Millie ran back into the corridor to look at the hole in the ship where the hole in space had exited. It was a perfect cut in the side of the ship, the glass and metal gone, and now covered with some sort of purple glow that kind of reminded Millie of her Heraldry shield.

It looked as if the danger was over. But what was that, and how did it know her? Millie wanted to relax further, but couldn't.

***

A lone figure stood firmly on the outside of the ship. Taller than the largest humanoid, and with six elegant wings of gold and white feathers emanating from her back, she was apparently both unprotected from and unaffected by the harshness of space. She had been witness the Dark Sphere's actions and forced leave from the ship. Standing well away from the view of anyone inside, she gazed first at the exit hole in the side of the ship now covered with an energy shield to protect the interior from the vacuum of space, and then she looked into space in the direction the Black Hole had been thrown with eyes that could see anything while remaining shut.

"Abnormality ceased. End report" it proclaimed simply. There may be no way for sound to travel in space, but those whom she intended to hear would do so.

Despite the vacuum of space, the angelic figure spread her wings and lifted itself of the ship without effort, floating away. When she was far enough from the ship to avoid drawing attention, she formed a series of complex glowing symbols around herself, and then vanished, leaving nothing.

* * *

**Dictionary: Acceleration Damping**

Acceleration Damping is a necessary technology that is inbuilt to all interstellar craft, and prevents the occupants from being killed or injured through the massive G-forces associated with accelerating from zero to faster-than-light speed in less than ten seconds. It currently still has limits, as the forces are merely reduced to tolerable levels rather than being completely eliminated.


	6. C1 06 A Diffcult Solution

**Chapter 1-6: A Difficult Solution to a Difficult Problem  
SD346-05-14**

Roddick quickly ran back to the stasis room, this time with Millie in tow, hoping to get back to Dorne before it was too late.

"Dorne!" he said loudly, but not quite shouting. Just in case.

Ilia was still here, along with the cadets Hurtsis and Wuthull, and Ilia spoke as soon as he and Millie reached Dorne's bedside. "Sorry you two" Ilia said. "We were halfway through the procedure, and there was no way to stop it."

"He looks peaceful, that's something at least" Millie said quietly.

"Hope you have some nice dreams in there." Roddick added. So this was what cold stasis looked like. Dorne had his eyes shut, and his tail was curled up next to the left side of his body. From what Roddick remembered, Dorne normally wouldn't sleep that way, but some people did.

"He can't dream in that state. I thought you were already aware of that, based on previous conversations." Ursula said without looking.

"There's no need to worry!" Wuthull said in a more up-beat tone. "Despite the power problems that occurred earlier, your friend is in a stable condition. The physiology of his body matches well enough with the standard humanoid type, so based on genetic convergence, we can expect that whenever you set him free, he'll suffer no more than the usual side effects."

"Ah yes, that power supply…" Ilia said. "I haven't been able to leave here, but I do know that something serious enough that the weapons storage was unlocked. And apparently you two got involved. So, are you going to tell me what happened?"

"Ah, well…" Millie began. Roddick didn't like her tone she had chosen. If you sound like a small child with something to hide, then that was how you would be treated, and Roddick thought that unfair.

Luckily for Millie, Ilia raised her hand to stop her explanation. Then she moved her right wrist to her face and spoke into it. Roddick could hear a voice coming from it, but the words were to faint from here for him to understand them.

"That's what happened? I find that hard to believe… Yes? I see, an interview will be needed… I am aware of the delicacy needed… Don't worry, its best that I handle it. Silestri out."

After finishing her conversation with her arm, Ilia turned back to the Roakian pair. "Okay, we'll have to move this conversation elsewhere. After I've gotten some briefings. In the meantime, you can stay here, and the cadets will look after you. Arrange to meet me in an hour."

Ilia left the room with quick steps. This suited Roddick fine, he didn't want to talk about the hole right now, no matter how dangerous or miraculous it was. He moved his hand over the smooth cool glass that separated Dorne from the outside.

_Goodbye Dorne. For just a little while._

***

The hologram of Commodore Reblis was crisp, and showed off his habit of wearing all his numerous medals upon his left breast at every opportunity. The man was balding, so perhaps he used them to remind younger people, such as Ronyx, that he wasn't some useless old fool. Not that Ronyx would ever think that of a man with Reblis's reputation. "From your report, the Calnus has suffered extensive damage" the older man said.

Ronyx spoke, keeping his voice neutral and free of his personal feelings on the situation. "Approximately twenty-eight million fol worth or repairs are needed. We are currently repairing the outside hull breach first before attempting any trip at warp speed."

As always, there was a lag of a second or so as the signal of Ronyx speech travelled the vast distance at faster-than-light speeds though subspace before Commodore Reblis could reply. "In your personal opinion, what about the incident with the alien life-form strikes you as most unusual?"

_Aside from everything?_ What was this? Did he have to ask these questions because he wasn't there?

"It is and was a living Black Hole, it spoke Terran, and was able to speak through a vacuum. This was confirmed by recordings of the speech, which show that it wasn't translated when we heard it. And it understood us just fine. There was a noted increase in air humidity at the just before the ship ejected the alien life form."

Commodore Reblis referred to something that Ronyx could see to his side as it was out of view. He continued to speak, slightly more slowly, while looking at his reference rather than Ronyx. "Based on this information of the alien life form with its interest in your passenger, as well as the matters black body substance and virus, we had decided to inform DUEP."

The Department of Unexplained Extraterrestrial Phenomena, or DUEP, as it was known, was set-up sometime after it became clear that space exploration wasn't just going to involve landing on planets for the raw minerals. Just what the department did was general kept as 'confidential', naturally, as the Terran Alliance tended to keep a lid on such things for as long as they could, unless there was money in it doing otherwise. It would be no surprise that they would show an interest in this alien. It also meant a great deal of confidentiality agreements that Ronyx would be forced to sign. It would be much better if DUEP wasn't involved, but it was inevitable in a case like this.

A second holographic display appeared in front of Ronyx. This one was slightly clearer than the one of Commodore Reblis, but what shocked Ronyx the most was the age of the man. Surely this agent could not be more than his early twenties, perhaps even younger, which would be ridiculous. Ronyx himself was extremely young for his position, achieving Captain at the age of thirty-five.

"Captain Kenny" the young man said in a pleasant voice. "I am Special Agent Moi of the Department of Unexplained Extraterrestrial Phenomena. We were very interested to learn of what you had experienced. I am merely here to inform you that another of our team is already en route to your location. Based on your preliminary report, we have assigned this as the 'Dark Sphere' investigation. You are to have your ship remain where it is unless another emergency eventuates and prepare for her arrival."

"I see. You were quick to get involved." Ronyx said, guarding his tone.

The young agent only blinked but made no other acknowledgement of Ronyx's statement. "After her initial inspection of the situation, both of you will return to Earth to make a more complete examination of the virus, the Black Body liquid and the Roakians."

_The Roakians?_

"I must protest. While I understand your department's interest in the virus and Black Body liquid, the subject was placed into stasis under the condition that he would not be long removed from his home planet. In addition, doing so is a violation of the UP3."

"Becoming attached is a bad idea, captain. It's a direct order. You have already violated that treaty, but we have considered your transgression unavoidable under the circumstances you found yourself in. We are in a war as you should well remember. We will take advantage of the situation by employing the use of Roakians who already have contact to avoid unnecessary further contact. At any rate, there is nothing the Alliance can do people of Roak at this time. The Alliance will not waste time and resources with it in this case."

Ronyx was left speechless at this remark. It took him a few moments for him to fully comprehend what they had just said.

Without even saying goodbye, let alone any sort of military or governmental sign off, Agent Moi cut his transmission leaving Reblis to finish. "I believe that completes all the items to be discussed at this time. Captain Kenny, I believe that this matter is of importance that supersedes all others. You will comply with everything that DUEP requires, understood."

Ronyx forced his voice to stay at it's normal volume. "Understood, commodore. Signing off." By this time, Ronyx was starting to get angry with their attitude and their plan. An entire species of intelligent beings was about to be wiped out due to the actions of an outside agent, and they were going to do nothing? That was genocide! What the hell was the Alliance for if not to stop things like this?!

Ronyx waved his had to signal to the computer to end the transmission. After doing so, he decided to ask a question of his computer.

"Computer, nothing I say is currently being recorded or transmitted in any form, correct?"

"That is correct sir" replied the computer in an even tone.

"Very well, because what I am about to say next is to remain off the record."

"Yes sir."

"Those stuck-up bastards can go screw themselves!"

That made him feel a little better, but it lasted only a moment. Ronyx leaned back in his chair to consider his options. He had a lot of things to juggle now. First, what could be done for Roak? Not much, it seemed. He had no way of treating the disease, everything he did know about it was useless in terms of a cure. He had to leave that to the people aboard his labs and hope that they got lucky. But a single ship wasn't designed for treating an entire planet of a plague. They didn't have the resources to find the cure, and even if they did, they didn't have the resources to make enough for an entire planet anyway. Only with the support of the Alliance could it be done.

Then there was this DEUP agent. The interference that this agent would bring would be a major problem. Until now, Ronyx had effectively complete authority on this ship, and bending the rules out of necessity could be explained away with administrative work. But the agent could probably demand routines and procedures that Ronyx couldn't disobey. It would be unlikely that a cure to the virus would be found before she arrived, and she could probably halt that when she got here. And there was no way he could allow the frozen Dorne to be taken back to Earth in that state. But neither could he just drop him back on the planet, it would kill him as surely as if he was shot.

Almost as disturbing as the virus problem was that Ronyx's conversation with the higher-ups had practically ignored the meeting with the Lezonians. Of course, the minutes of that meeting were already in the Alliance'sr hands, so there wasn't anything to ask about in terms of proceedings. But normally, he would expect them to ask his personal opinion about a topic that could affect the largest war the Terran Alliance had ever been involved in. Just what could they be thinking? Possibly DUEP had authority over Reblis? But despite the underserved level of importance that the Alliance placed on DUEP, there didn't seem any way that it could influence military policy. But Ronyx couldn't think of an alternative.

Still, there would be some time until they showed up. The ship couldn't leave, but if they got lucky and a cure could be found to the virus, that would help the war effort. The Alliance might not want to bother making a cure, but if they had one already, they might be convinced to manufacture and distribute it, preventing the possibility of any further invisible weapons. Whatever the Lezonians might claim, it wasn't time to trust them yet. But the Alliance was more concerned with this Dark Sphere than the war, totally backwards in their thinking. No matter what this Dark Sphere was, it couldn't threaten the entire Alliance in the way the war could. The threat the war presented was a certainty, the Dark Sphere's threat was not.

Ronyx slowly stirred in his chair as he considered very carefully how it might be done. Somewhat ironically, it would probably require him to be quite reckless.

***

Ilia stood still as she let her eyes gaze over the small but well furnished room. Not too claustrophobic or too large a room was required for situations like this. Millie was looking down at the plain table impassively. In front of her was a bowl of synthed food that Ilia had provided, but Millie hadn't tried to touch it. Now that there had been time to calm down and to focus, she was back to thinking about her father. She had already made her desire to return and see him aloud, but seemed as if she was unsure herself of doing so. That could only mean she was already thinking her father as dead.

Roddick sat across from her, also looking down at the table. He was more settled than Millie, and his actions were mostly reflections of Millie's. He had eaten about half of his food, which was something at least. As much as Ilia would like to let them be, there was an important issue that had to be covered.

"I need you to tell me exactly what happened today. The parts that weren't captured on camera." Ilia asked both of them. There was quite a lot not on any camera, apparently the "entity had a tendency to disable electronics near it. They had already been over this, but any detail, no matter how small was important, and Ilia needed to drag it all out.

Outside the room, there were about a hundred people, all trying to look in on the conversation. Ilia made them all stay outside, regardless of how self-important they might think their possible contributions. The last thing these two needed was further crowding.

There was a brief silence before Millie came to life. "I don't know!" Millie sounded exasperated. "I was just in my room alone, and suddenly it was there! It was just this empty hole in space! At first, I thought I was just hallucinating. Why it saw me first, I don't know." All the time, Millie was making hand gestures, but they didn't really help her description.

"Well, I have some interesting information. You weren't the first to see it." Ilia said. She sat down at the table with them to make herself more accessible.

"I wasn't?" Millie said, somewhat surprised.

"No" Ilia continued. "The same voice was discovered to have spoken to Dorne when he was alone."

"It attacked Dorne?! Why didn't he say anything?!" Roddick exclaimed.

"It didn't attack him at all." Ilia said.

"Then…?" Roddick said, seemingly lost in thought.

"It spoke to him, called him 'amusing' and a 'foolish little boy', then vanished. Based on the soundwave volume triangulation, the speaker originated from outside the ship. Impossible for sound to originate from outside naturally, but that's what happened. And we've had quite a few impossible things today."

"It gave me the foolish speech as well. Except for the 'boy' part" Millie said, calm, suppressed, and looking at the table again.

"I don't think that need mentioning." Roddick said flatly.

"Dorne also spoke a few other times to people we couldn't see, but those times there was no one that we could detect him speaking to. In all cases, he seemed shocked, although less so as time went on. Has he acted like that at home?" Ilia asked.

"Never. Dorne's not crazy." Roddick said. Millie nodded in agreement.

"Hmmm…" Ilia stood up, and started walking around the room, she felt that walking helped her think. "Well, one obvious possibility is that he was hallucinating. He was ill with a virus of many unknowns, so that's a natural thing to think…"

"But…" Millie said.

"Indeed, it would seem a rather odd thing that this alien hole would appear, just when we find a virus that can turn your people into a Black Body liquid. We know that the Lezonians use it on their ships, but it's kind of a coincidence it a person with the body of a Black Body showed up at the same time. But, what's the connection?" Ilia said, the last part mostly to herself.

"We don't know. We've never seen anything like it. My first thought was that it was something to do with up here." Roddick said.

"So, how did it react to you, Millie?" Ilia asked.

"It insulted me. It ate my shield and half my pillow and chased me out of the room. It wasn't anywhere near as dangerous then as it was after we caught up to Ronyx." Millie said, while moving her hands around and over the table to help explain.

_What were you using as shield? More importantly, why did it change its attitude?_

"Hmmm, well, just like there is definitely a connection between the Black Body liquid and this alien, there is also one between you personally and the alien. Dorne too. We need to find out what it is."

"And how are we going to do that? And what about the virus?" Roddick said.

"And my father?" Millie added.

"Well, I'd think the Captain has a plan. But I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to make promises on the Captain's behalf, so there's not much I can say." Ilia didn't like suggesting to anyone that they were useless, but it was an unfortunate fact that such people came from an underdeveloped planet, and didn't have any appropriate skills for the problem of finding a cure to the virus. It was time to see what Ronyx was up to anyway.

"You two, I'll be back soon to talk about this some more. Try to eat something until then, okay?" Ilia said before leaving.

***

Roddick and Millie sat quietly after Ilia left. The chairs here had solid backs which made them slightly uncomfortable for him, as it left no easy room for his tail. Occasionally, Raitx stabbed at his food with his fork, but he didn't find the coloured globs of mush all that appetising.

There was the quiet hiss of the door behind Roddick opening, and Roddick turned his neck to see the Cadet Wuthull, or Claude, entering to sit down at the head of the table were Ilia used to be. He looked slightly happy with himself, but also serious.

"Hey guys, how you feeling?" said an upbeat voice.

"Fine thanks" Roddick said in a mumbled voice.

"As you say." The cadet brushed it off, making it clear that he knew it wasn't true, but was going to pretend he didn't know.

"How'd you get in here anyway? I thought Ilia told everyone that they weren't allowed to see us?"

"Ah, well, it's called 'initiative'" the young cadet said smiling. "But enough about me, I want to know what your plan is."

"Our plan?" Millie asked, the question starting to rouse her.

Wuthull continued. "You know, your plan. What are you going to do now?" Both his hands were making large gestures forward, as if it was obvious that they should already have a plan.

"Does it matter? It's too late for him, my father." Millie started to sink again, so Roddick took over.

"I guess, we'll wait. Until a cure to the virus can be developed, there's not much we can do, is there?"

"Just to wait?" Wuthull sighed. He leaned back in the chair so that it was only supported on two legs. "You know, that's not very pro-active. Millie, your father, he might be, well, you know, but what about everyone else? Are you going to risk everyone else to suffer the same as him?"

The question seemed to make Millie more introspective. "I, well, I don't want that to happen. But there's nothing for us to do."

"It's just our role is all" Radix said. "Wait here until she comes back and gives us something to do."

"Role, pah!" Wuthull, made a fake spitting motion, although Roddick wasn't quite sure what that was supposed to mean. "Make a new one. Go up to Ronyx right now, and say, 'don't forget about us! Give us something to do!' It'll work."

"You seem confident" Millie said.

"Well, it'll work for you at least. You have influence due to your, shall we say, 'oddness'." Wuthull spun his index fingers in circles to accompany the words. "So, use it."

Roddick starred at Millie, considering the option. Well, it did sound appealing.

_Yes, you should push yourself in…_

_No, wait until then…_

In his head, Roddick voice went back and forth, although the two arguments seemed to be speaking in different tones, which was strange since they were just internal voices. Then again, what did it matter in the end? There was no one here who would consider this an atypical action from him, except maybe Millie, and she would do far more odd things than he would. "Millie?"

"I know. I guess there's no harm in trying." Millie said.

"Let's go find him then." Roddick and Millie both got up from the table. Half his mind was still disagreeing, but the other pushed him forward.

***

Ronyx looked over his equipment laid out over the table for the third and last time before getting ready to packing it tightly into his seldom used travel backpack. Obviously, there was equipment for acquiring and storing the sample of biological material from the being 'Asmodeus', but he would probably need quite a few other things. Any money he had would be useless, so he couldn't count on buying anything unless he wanted to carry around raw gold or precious stones. Such things would be valuable on any underdeveloped planet, but they might attract the wrong sort of attention. There were several translators, some rations until he could figure out how to acquire food and clothing which he thought looked something how he understood Fellpool-type Roakians to dress based on his limited sampling, although strictly speaking, his understanding of the Time Gate meant he really shouldn't need any of this equipment bar the scientific supplies.. If everything went as he expected, he would appear right by his target, obtain what he needed quickly and in surprise, before returning immediately, out of harm's way and avoiding the possible difficulties that came with interacting with people.

There were footsteps behind him, and Ronyx turned to find Roddick and Millie approaching him. "Ronyx, we need to talk" Roddick stated simply.

"Whatever it is that you're doing to save everyone, we're doing it too! I don't know what it is, but we're doing it" Millie added.

Now that they were here, Ronyx realised that he had got so caught up in what he was doing, that he must have forgot all about them. Still, now that they were here... "How'd you find me anyway? No wait, never mind about that. Tell me about these clothes? Do you think they would let me mingle well on your world?" Ronyx held up a shirt he had synthesised only an hour before.

"Ah… well, I guess…" Roddick said, somewhat unenthusiastically.

"Actually, come to thing of it, I should have really asked your advice on this, since a period of three hundred years is bound to induce some change in fashion, although probably less on an underdeveloped planet." Ronyx put the shirt that looked like it was made from fine cotton, but actually was a strong synthetic fabric, back down onto the table next to him alongside the other items he had gathered.

"So, what are you doing and how are we helping?" Millie enquired, looked over all of Ronyx' materials inquisitively.

"Well, you'll probably don't believe this, but we are going to travel to your planet to try and get a cure to the virus."

"That's great! So, why wouldn't we believe you?" Roddick said, now both happy and confused.

Ronyx looked back at the table and started fidgeting with a syringe and its protective seal. "Because to get the cure, I need a sample from a being that hasn't lived for three hundred years. The only way for me to get it is to travel through the space-time continuum in a non-linear path. That is, time travel to three hundred years ago."

"Time travel? I don't get it." Roddick now sounded just confused.

"Basically, he means he wants to go back to the past." Ilia said as she appeared out of the corridor. "So, what do I get to wear?"

"Ilia?!" Ronyx said in surprise. "How long have you been there, and how did you know?"

"Long enough and you hopefully should be able to work out the second question yourself" Ilia said with a slight smile. "I'm coming to Styx too, just so you know" she continued, as if it were a forgone conclusion.

"Officer Silestri, my intention is to take this trip alone."

"What about them?" Ilia said, pointing behind Ronyx to Roddick and Millie. "They seem eager, especially since I asked them to remain elsewhere and eat."

"Well, them too" Ronyx added hastily, although Ronyx quickly realised that he hadn't gotten around to figuring out how Roddick and Millie were going to fit into his plans. They could be needed in case any cultural problems were raised. And it would not be a good idea to leave them alone here, since it was certain that some people aboard the ship would blame them for the Dark Sphere incident. "But they are not part of the crew or under my command, they won't be reprimanded afterwards by the Alliance." Ronyx didn't want to have this conversation now, he just wanted to get this done quickly before anything tried to stop him. "Technically, I'm not breaking orders, as only the Calnus, not I, must remain here. But I will be in trouble enough as it is."

"So?"

"Given your current rank, your career would be ruined. I order you to remain here." Ronyx said, trying to keep his voice neutral and factual.

"The decisions I make about my future aren't based on what you say. Anyway, since this is, as you say, almost certainly to outside the authority permitted to you by the Alliance and being done in secret, you have neither authority nor the means to force me to stay here." Ilia sounded satisfied.

"Ilia…" Ronyx said, frustrated.

Ilia turned to leave. "I'll be waiting on the transport ship when you depart." Ilia said somewhat light-heartedly as she walked out the door leading to the lower hanger bay. "See you then."

What was she thinking, doing such a thing? Ilia was competent, to be sure, so her aid would probably make things easier. But somehow her actions seemed to make things more complex than they should be. "Well, then" he said after a while. Although he was speaking to Roddick and Millie again, he didn't face them. "I suppose you two had best come with me. We're leaving for the planet Styx."

***

**Dictionary: Department of Unexplained Extraterrestrial Phenomena (DUEP)**

An administrative department set-up by the Terran Alliance in SD115, their job is to examine and understand all the 'weird stuff' that was found in space that no one was expecting. Initially, they were mostly a group of appointed physicists employed to understand well known but poorly understood subjects such as Dark Matter, Dark Energy and the true nature of Gravity. However, when several intelligent species throughout the galaxy were uncovered and Out-of-Place Artefacts found, their role rapidly evolved to investigating them.

Because, in a time of war, the nature of what they discover must be kept secret for the purpose of possible military advantage, they have recently become more secretive (and some would say, self-important). Technically, they are not part of the military, and the Terran Alliance generally gives DUEP authority over the military in its areas of interest. Something which tends to irritate the military to no end.


	7. C1 07 End of the Beginning

**Chapter 1-7: End of the Beginning**

**SD346-05-15**

The transport ship's main seating area was not at all cramped as Roddick had imagined it, but it was designed for carrying a hundred passengers, so obviously only four was always going to seem empty. The giant window looking out into the space on one side and the lack of decorations to cover the cold steel walls didn't help either, although there were a large number of 'monitors', most of which were lifeless. For her part Millie was content to lay her body across the dozens of seats available, but she switched frequently. Whether it was because she was uncomfortable, or just wanted to try them all out for some reason, Roddick didn't know.

Roddick couldn't feel so relaxed though. Once again, he had learned incredible things form Ronyx and Ilia, and he had to fit it in somehow with what he already knew. Or it was just going to keep turning over in this mind anyway. So when Ronyx and Ilia entered the passenger room, coming in from the bridge, Roddick to up the opportunity to ask his question.

"Ronyx, didn't you say that we were travelling three hundreds years into the past?"

Ronyx stat down across from Roddick before replying. "That's right. It means that we will take part in the events of that time."

"But… why then?"

"According to the information I learned from the Lezonians, that's when the Asmodeus entity existed. And the virus was based somehow on Asmodeus. We need a sample of his tissue to create a cure."

"But don't you know? Asmodeus is the King of Demons"

Ronyx was stunned, only managing a single word "What?"

"Three hundred years ago, there was a big war against the demonic legions" explained Roddick.

Ronyx shook his head, clearly confused about something, but Roddick couldn't guess at what that was. He felt that he had been pretty clear about what he had just said. After a moment, he made a small smile and said "I think there might be a problem with the translation. Perhaps what you mean by 'demons' is not quite what it means in the Terran Alliance, and why we call this being 'Asmodeus' in the first place. Perhaps you call them 'demons' or maybe it's just how the translator picks words."

"But anyway, I wanted to say. Three hundred years ago, we had a big war with Asmodeus."

"When you say a 'big war', how big a war?" asked Ilia. She had positioned herself to stand behind Ronyx, leaning on the back of the seat next to him.

"The biggest war you can possibly imagine!" Millie interrupted, waving her hands far above her head. "Every country in the world was against them! Thousands upon thousands marched to beat back the legions of Daemonium. And the Crimson Shield. And the Legendary Heroes too!"

"That sounds impressive" Ronyx said, but he didn't sound fully convinced. Roddick was mildly annoyed. Did he think that Roak wasn't capable of fighting impressive battles without things like 'guns' and flying ships? Although the demonic armies weren't lacking in that department, really…

Millie didn't seem to pick up on that though, she was more focused on possible her role in things. "So, will we get to see all that?!"

"I don't plan on it" said Ronyx.

"But why?"

"We shouldn't interfere with the past. I'm not going to give you a bunch of lectures on the current hypotheses regarding the space-time continuum, but you never know what could happen. You interfere with the past too much and your great-great-grandparents may never meet, and when you return, you might not exist! If the Gate allows us to travel there, then we should do as little as possible beyond what we went for. We can trust the Gate that far. We go there, get a sample from this Asmodeus, Demon King or not, and leave. In regards to your war, they'll have to fight it on their own."

Millie's face became a bit shocked at the idea of standing on the sidelines. "You're saying that we shouldn't help?"

Ilia answered her. "We already know that your ancestors are going to win. You wouldn't be here if they lost, right? They don't need our help. And there's only four of us, it's doubtful we could contribute meaningfully in anyway."

"Except for technology, but we're especially forbidden from doing that." Ronyx then became very stern. "Roddick, Millie. You _must_ promise me that while we are there, you will not do anything to alter the history of the world that you know. It would take a very long time to explain, so I'll say only that you could possibly remove from history everyone you know, including yourself."

Roddick felt that Ronyx was starting to talk down to him. "You needn't exaggerate…"

"I'm not" Ronyx snapped. "I am very serious about what I just said."

Ronyx let the silence hang in the air, and Ilia stood behind him, her face just as stern.

So they were both going to act like this? In their defence, they did know what they were talking about, and Roddick didn't. But that didn't mean that Roddick had to like the way they expressed it. "Fine. We won't help fight in the war, except to get the sample from Asmodeus."

"Promise" Millie added.

"Very well then" Ronyx said, apparently satisfied.

Ilia took over the explanation. "Now that you understand that part, you should also realise that our current time should already take into account any meddling we're going to do." When Roddick gave only a confused face as an answer, she continued. "Basically, if you came across a situation where you have to interfere to keep history the same, then not interfering is the wrong thing to do."

Roddick thought about this, but it made very little sense to him.

"So, we aren't to try and change history, unless we did change history, in which case we should change history?" Normally, when Roddick asked a question aloud, it helped clarify in his own mind the question itself. But this time, Roddick said the words, but still wasn't sure if the question he had asked even made any sense.

Millie responded to Ilia's instruction with a complaint instead. "I think my head is starting to hurt."

Ronyx looked at some device on his wrist, and stood up. "I'm going back to the bridge, Ilia can explain the rest." Ronyx then left the same way he came in.

"Well, do you have any stories that you know of about the war, or around that time, about people who came fell from space, or had abilities that normal people didn't?"

"Well, the Old Race supposedly fell from the stars, of course, but that was thousands of years ago, and they were all gone from the world long before the war."

"And there's the Legendary Heroes, they were pretty special, and they first appeared around then." Millie said.

"In that case, there is a chance, unfortunately" Ilia said. "That _we_ may be those heroes."

"Do you really think so?" Millie asked, her voice suddenly excited. Obviously, the idea must have appealed to her, as Roddick could have guessed it would.

Roddick felt the need to point out the obvious flaw in Millie's ambition. "But there're four of us. There's only two Legendary Heroes."

"Or maybe not them, but still we could be someone important in the war." Millie started moving about the room randomly, as she usually did unconsciously when she was imagining herself in exciting situations she was never actually going to end up in.

Ilia tried to bring her back to reality, not that it would last long in Roddick's opinion. "Ideally we won't be there for more than five minutes, so everything we've just talked about will be moot. But you can think over it for a while."

***

Ronyx watched both the auto-pilot and the sensors of the small transport ship every few minutes out of habit and nervousness, but there was little chance that any problems that they might soon run into would be the ship's fault. While in subspace travel mode, the transport ship's sensors were continuously giving scanning the surrounding space, looking for other interested parties nearby. The Alliance had first tried to keep Styx's existence a secret from the general public, but when that became impossible, Styx was merely referred to as a dead planet of no importance. Most certainly, the public must not know that the Terran Alliance would not bother with constant monitoring of a planet with at least a battleship. After all, that would imply that Styx had something valuable.

Landing on Styx would require sneaking past the Alliance as it was unlikely he could bluff himself by, and there hadn't been time to prepare suitable forged data passes anyway. Ronyx knew a lot more about the capabilities and routines of the types of battleships that defended Styx than most, giving him a comparatively large advantage compared to most invaders, but would it be enough?

Just then, he noticed that Ilia had made her way into the cockpit and placed herself firmly in the co-pilot's chair. "What's the situation?" she asked him.

"Same as before" Ronyx said.

"Look, don't worry so much. I'm sure we'll be fine." Ilia said. "I mean, I know there's actually quite a few things that all have to work despite the odds being against us, but there's time like this, when for some reason, you just know that everything will work out."

"Where's your confidence coming from?"

"From you for starters. You wouldn't be attempting this if you didn't have some belief in its success."

"I'll think you'll find my beliefs to be on rather shaky ground. I believe it, I don't know it. After the Dark Sphere incident, I had to have another long talk with the Lezonians to convince myself on this. It's not so much I believe it will work, as I hope it will and can't see any other way that could solve my problems."

"Even by those standards… well, as you say. Well, for now let's just worry about the more immediate concerns. Now, how long do we have?"

"Our E.T.A. is five hours."

"Hmmm… Well, can't let this chance go to waste. We should figure out what we're going to sample when we travel back. It's too bad we didn't get a good chance during our very brief time on Roak to determine what had genetic changes occurred in the past three hundred years, but I guess we can visit Roak again when we get back." Ilia ended her sentence somewhat wistfully.

"Ilia, we're not going to collect samples of everything so you study alien evolution. We'll probably be forced to make a quick retreated since I don't think Asmodeus will be pleased when we surprise and stab him for his blood. And you wouldn't be able to publish it anyway without revealing you had violated the UP3."

"I know that. It's just, well…"

"Well, what?"

"Well, it would be interesting, that's all. I thought you would think the same. No one's ever been to this planet before, wouldn't it be great if we were to discover something new?"

"I can appreciate your enthusiasm, but we really don't have time to worry about such a thing. I'm sure Roak has its fair share of interesting quirks, but we've already got the virus and I don't see how anything from an underdeveloped planet could be more important right now."

"Can't you just imagine that possibly things could be more than they are Ronyx without having to plan it all?" Ilia said, half-resigned.

***

"Ilia, how much longer?" Millie asked, making sure she didn't sound like she was whining.

"Based on the planned route, it should take us ten minutes to reach the Time Gate." Ilia replied.

They had walked quite far for the ship's landing point and the were still some distance from their destination, but even from here, Millie could see the giant, artificial structure sticking out of the barren landscape. It must be huge to appear so large from this distance. Millie could see it was a great large rectangular shape, dominating the landscape, yet also blending in with it sandy coloured features that matched the dry ground.

Aside from the Time Gate, this planet Styx seemed completely barren. There were no signs of life, or water, or anything except the large rocks and tall flat cliffs over which she was now carefully moving. The landscape was comprised of a series of canyons, at the moment they were atop them, allowing a clear view into the distance. The canyons below them ran deep, and there was only darkness that Millie could see down in the crevices, despite it being daytime. A blanket of clouds covered the entire sky, preventing Millie from knowing where in the sky to find this world's Sun.

Ronyx had claimed that the reason they had to walk so far was because their choice of landing sites was limited by the movements of an observing Alliance ship and staying out of its sight. Millie didn't know why they were hiding from the Alliance; couldn't Ronyx just ask to be let past?

Every now and again, the group of four had to leap across from one side of the canyon to the other to move towards the Time Gate. The canyons were extremely narrow, and it never took very long to find a place even more narrow than usual that they could cross by simply jumping. Doing so was rather nerve-racking, despite how remote the chance of falling might be, the results of falling down such sheer cliffs was not something that Millie wanted to focus upon.

After some time, they crossed the last canyon, and came to a wide open space. The space was very large, several times that of Millie's home village of Kratus, and the Time Gate stood alone at the centre. Around it was a few strange shapes embedded in the ground, but the Time Gate was the only thing taller than Millie's knee height above the ground.

Approaching with a bit of caution and a lot of wonder, Millie stood with Roddick in front of the Time Gate, straining her neck to look upwards at its full height. It was taller than any building Millie could remember seeing save the castle in Portmith. Up close, Millie could see deep lines etched into its frame, possibly words of some language. They looked a little like Heraldry, but Millie didn't recognise any of the symbols.

"What's it say?" Roddick asked.

"No one knows. We can't translate it without some context or another source, and we have neither." Ronyx said back, apparently deducing what Roddick was talking about automatically.

"It's so amazing…" Millie said quietly.

"Yes, it is. Actually, I've been here before, but no one is supposed to know that." Ronyx said. "Anyway, here is where we come to our first problem. We have to see if the Time Gate likes us enough to let us through."

"It 'likes' us?" Millie questioned. "It's alive?"

"Impossible to know for sure, but it would seem very much so. It definitely passes all the variations of a Turing test, among others." Millie didn't know what a Turing test was, but Ronyx probably wouldn't say it unless it helped his point. "Allow me to demonstrate its nature." Ronyx continued as he moved himself to stand directly in front to the Time Gate, upon a symbol engraved into the ground. Meanwhile, Ilia pulled Roddick and Millie away from the central area wordlessly.

Ronyx stood straight with his arms out and forward as he addressed the monolithic structure. "I, Ronyx Kenny, hereby request passage!"

For a moment, there was nothing, but then with a deep rumbling sound, the Time Gate split its sides, and they rotated about the base, an inner and an outer rectangle, until they were positioned a quarter-circle from each other. When they stopped moving, a long blue streak appeared in the empty rectangular space, and this streak expanded sideways to fill the hollow. Then, a powerful and deep voice emanated from the Time Gate.

"I acknowledge your request, Ronyx Kenny. Your request to travel to the planet Roak, three hundred years prior for the purpose of ultimately curing the Asmodeus Black Body Virus is denied." There was a ripple over the blue surface of the Gate as it spoke and the ripple vanished again when the Gate finished its speech.

"Why?!" Ronyx said, sounding only partly surprised.

"Unfortunately, that was half-expected." Ilia said, quietly to Millie and Roddick.

"Hang on. How did it know what we wanted?" Roddick asked and without waiting, walked quickly to stand in front of the Time Gate by Roddick. Millie felt that she really ought to do the same and that left Ilia with no choice but to also follow.

Apparently, the Gate took Roddick's step forward as a request, and it replied. "I am aware of everything that occurs within Time, from beginning to end."

"Everything?!" Millie said in amazement.

"Correct, in your words the closet term would be 'omniscient', although this is not perfectly accurate."

"Wow, that's incredible." Roddick said softly, and then he turned to face Ronyx. "Why didn't we just ask the Time Gate how we can solve everything? Actually, how come you Alliance guys just aren't asking the Time Gate questions all the time?"

"We've tried that naturally. The Time Gate is tight-lipped, you might say. It won't tell you anything you don't already know" Ilia said, an expression of irony on her face.

"Let's try it anyway." Millie said. This was a chance that couldn't be turned down. "So, how old are you?"

"Three point seven billion years old" came the reply, quickly and clearly.

"You may not have know that Millie, but we did. Unfortunately, it's not new knowledge." Ilia said.

"Okay, so the universe is that old, right?" 'Billion' was a lot, Millie thought, but she had never thought anything could be that old, so she didn't know if that was special or not.

"No. The universe you know is actually approximately another ten billion years older than I am."

"But didn't you say that you knew everything since the beginning of Time? You know things from times before you existed?" Roddick asked, still somewhat sceptical of the Time Gate's claims.

"That is correct. I am a four-dimensional aware being, and my physical presence is not needed for all of existence, for I am able to perceive and access all Time, from the beginning in SD negative thirteen point seven billion to the end at SD seven hundred seventy two."

"That's really incredible, don't you thi…" Millie was saying but she found herself interrupted as Ronyx suddenly yelled at the Time Gate.

"Wait a damn minute! SD seven-seven-two is only four hundred years away! You're telling me that the universe will end then?!" Ronyx sounded a bit angry, but mostly shocked as he yelled. Standing beside him, Ilia said nothing with her mouth hanging open.

"I cannot see anything beyond that point. Time ends then" again said without any more emotion than if the Time Gate was describing the current cloudy weather.

"And what is the cause?! You must tell us!" Ronyx demanded.

"I cannot see the direct cause. I can infer the events that lead up to it, but as you do not already know them, I cannot tell you their nature as you would attempt to change your future actions to prevent it. I see that I do not tell you the cause, therefore I cannot. If you knew and acted on this information, it would change the data that makes up my being, blinding and, in a way, destroying a part of me. To be blinded would be contrary to my nature, and therefore I cannot tell you what actions I believe lead to the end of the universe and time"

"But you told us that Time would end in four hundred years. None of us knew that. Why did you tell us that?!" Ronyx looked around at Millie and the other two as if to make sure that it wasn't somehow possible that one of them already knew about the End of Time, but the look Millie and the others returned seemed to convince him otherwise quickly.

"I do not know. Although I told you that, and presumably knew the reason at that time, I cannot see the processes that lead to that decision, for they do not exist here."

"I don't even understand what you are saying" Roddick said.

"It is the truth. Possibly the trigger for my previous statement was removed in the process, or it is a memory that has been hidden from me. Other possibilities also exist. Regardless, that does not alter the truth that I cannot see why I would tell you when the End of Time would occur."

"Sounds like that blindness you keep talking about" Ilia commented, but not in a way that the Time Gate would reply to.

"Shouldn't we worry less about why it told us and more about what we should do about it?" Roddick said.

"You're right, Roddick. Okay, so what should we do about that?" Ronyx said, as if to say 'you opened your mouth, so what's your plan then?'

"When Time ends, will you… die?" Millie asked carefully. What kind of reactions could accusations of death trigger in a being that was effectively a giant living stone?

"I do not exist in Time in the same way that you do. The edge of the Time dimension does provide a limit to the extent of my existence. 'Yes' is a closer answer than 'no'."

"But you do not want to die, do you?" Surely the Time Gate could be helped if only it realised it wanted to. Millie hoped so.

"Desires are not relevant to what actually happens" the Time Gate said plainly.

"But, that doesn't mean anything. Do you want to die?" Millie asked again.

"No. Without a universe to observe, I do not exist. Similarly, the greater the universe that I observe, the more 'alive' I am."

"Because, you know, I was thinking. Wouldn't it be better if you allowed us to travel though Time? You would blind yourself, as you say, but only a little. Then if you allow us, we can stop Time from ending!" Sometimes to cure a tree of an illness, you had to cut a little bit off to prevent it from spreading. That particular branch would be gone, but the tree would live on for much longer.

"That is a large ambition, Millie." Ronyx said with a touch of respect in his voice Millie hadn't noted earlier, and placing his hand on her shoulder. "Still, the Alliance may be able to do something with the resource of Time Travel and be able to save Time, if it is indeed going to end." There was now some sort self-reflection in his voice, as if he were thinking about how to actually do it.

Without any sort of indication, the Time Gate let known it changed intention. "I will allow you to travel to Roak, three hundred years past. The events that lead to the End of Time are intertwined with the development of the Asmodeus Black Body Virus you wish to cure, as well as the entity that initiated the encounter between the Roakians and the Terran Alliance."

"Wow, you change your mind quickly" Roddick said. "Wait, which entity are you talking about?"

"I cannot say, as you do not yet know" the Time Gate said.

"Was it the Hole-Thing?" Millie said thoughtfully. "But that was after we met Ronyx and Ilia. Before we met them at the top of Mt. Metorx, when we were looking for the herb…" It was so hard to remember.

After a moment, Roddick suddenly lit up. "I remember now! It was that girl, remember Millie? She told us to jump of the cliff! That's how we met you!" Roddick said, he final words directed towards Ronyx and Ilia. "She knew that we would meet you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. What girl?" Ronyx said, confused.

"There was this girl at the top of the cliff that sneaked up and scared us off. I'd never seen her before." Millie said. "So, she did it to make us meet? But why?"

"Well, that's interesting, but we can talk about it on the other side. We should move quickly, let's go before it changes its mind again." Ronyx added.

"That should not occur. I will give you one opportunity. You will emerge in a safe location, from which you can plan your actions. When you feel you have acted to your satisfaction in the past of Roak, or should you decide to forfeit your opportunity, concentrate an image of me in your mind and I will open a Time portal through which you may return."

Suddenly, the blue portal shimmered for a moment, and then it became a much lighter colour before becoming bright like a light was shining through it, but it did not look like anything else. If Millie were to press against it, would she find a wall to push back, or, as it claimed, would she fall through?

"Enter" was the Time Gate's last word.

The four of them stood staring at the Gate for a little while. The situation was starting to sink in now, and Millie no longer felt at it was going to be so simple. She had concentrated on convincing the Time Gate that it was for its own good that it should allow them, but would this really be so easy? Ronyx had earlier indicated that the Time Gate would be the hardest portion, but what if something went wrong? Three hundreds years ago was the time of the demonic war on Roak, it was a dangerous time to live in. And what if she got stuck there?

Then again, it seemed really simple and failsafe to return, nothing short of death could really prevent her from coming back. And if that was about to happen, then she could return to escape as a last resort. She had said she could help the Time Gate by going, so there wasn't anything to do but uphold her end of the bargain, even though saving Time wasn't the reason they were travelling. Still, it did surprise her a little bit when she found herself as the first out of the four to make a step to it.

"Right, let's get going" Ronyx said, as though he had just cleared away his doubts in the way Millie thought she had. "The sooner we get going, the earlier we'll be allowed to return back to, and the less time the Calnus will think we're away."

Standing right front of the Time Gate, Millie cautiously extended her hand towards it, but didn't touch it. But when Ronyx, standing beside her, suddenly jumped through, Millie stopped herself from thinking and also jumped before Roddick or Ilia could comment.

***

Word had started to spread around the Calnus that an Alliance government ship was arriving, but Ursula, along with everyone else, was surprised when it showed up almost immediately after the Captain departed. Furthermore, while the ship bore the distinct markings of the Terran Alliance on its exterior, it was not of any model that she recognised. It was nearly as large as the Calnus, and its name was written on the side, identifying it as the _Lenneth_.

Being without duties at this time, Ursula decided to see what kind of people were aboard. Making her way to a walkway with a view over the large inter-ship teleportation bay, she was not alone in her interest, as many of the crew who did not (and probably a few that did) have more important matters to attend to were already there.

After about five minutes of waiting, during which the people gathered muttered to themselves about their soon to be guests, a notification over the speakers in the viewing area alerted the incoming teleportation, silencing everyone. It was quickly followed as seven pillars of light formed in the centre of the telepad and changed into seven young people.

They were all very young. Ursula would be hard pressed to say that any of them were any more than teenagers. In the centre was either the team leader or mascot, it was hard to tell which was more appropriate. She was not dressed in a uniform like everyone else around her, but in some outlandishly colourful thing that would best and most politely be described by Ursula as 'impractical'. It was some sort of strapless blue dress that reminded Ursula of a costume party, and was accompanied by a wide variety of bangles, jewelled earrings and other flashy jewellery. To top it all was a stream of unrestrained blue hair that reached down to her waist. Why would anyone dress like that in a place like this?

Surrounding her were six similarly young persons, half male and half female, although these were all dressed in a variation of the standard Alliance Uniform. Despite the fact that Ursula hadn't seen this variation before, they immediately seemed 'boring' by comparison to what the lady in the centre was wearing. Perhaps that was the intention.

Ursula, along with just about everyone else who was here, was unable to hear what was being said on the telepad floor as an officer came up to welcome them aboard. The six surrounding the mascot all raised their hands in salute to match the welcoming party, but the mascot herself made no such curtesy, merely standing there waiting for something.

The ship's current lead officer spoke something to the group, but the mascot crossed her arms as she replied. The remain six stood stiff as statues, except when it was clear that the mascot wanted something from them, such as identifying data. This went on for a few minutes, the expression on the mascot's face becoming more and more annoying until she suddenly yelled so loudly that everyone on the balcony could hear her clearly despite the distance and clear wall.

"What do you mean they aren't here?! They should be here!"

* * *

**Dictionary: Calnus**

A research exploration craft, it is currently under the command of Captain Ronyx J. Kenny. It is slightly over 1 kilometre long and like all research explorer ships, is designed to operate alone for years at a time if need be and without direct continuous contact with the Alliance. It contains numerous labs for scientific research in a wide range of interests, as well as residential areas for the families of staff on board, although the practice of bringing one's family is gently discouraged by the Terran Alliance unless all members are employed in some capacity on board the ship.

Although research explorer crafts are significantly less armed than the companion class ships known as combat explorers, Captain Kenny has personally requested that his particular ship be upgraded in respects to it shielding and firepower, making it at least comparable in combat abilities to its battle-orientated cousins.

* * *

**Author's notes:**

This concludes the first arc. Next chapter will shift to 20 years in the future, with Claude's actions that send him to Expel. The SO2 intro is looking to be a fair bit longer than this one. After some chapters, it then goes to SO3 and then back to here.

I notice that no-one has reviewed my work. While I'm not necessarily doing this for the reviews in and of themselves, it would be nice to hear your opinions of how the piece is progressing and what you, my readers, think of it, what you like and don't like, and how it could be improved.


	8. C2 01 An Adventurous Mind

**Author's notes on naming conventions:**

There will name changes between the PS1 and PSP versions of the game. The newer PSP version will probably have names that are more self-consistent with the series overall, so in the end I will probably prefer to use those. However, the PSP version of the game is not yet released, so I do not know currently what the PSP will use, except for a few selected cases that I've seen screenshots for.

As such, I may change the names at a later date to fit. However, if I do so, I will change all the chapters, so that there is only one name used in the story at a time, keeping the story self-consistent.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 2-1: An Adventurous Mind**

**SD 366-06-03**

With a familiar tingling sensation that came with reforming after teleportation, Claude found himself on a wasteland. Specifically, the unexplored wasteland of a planet named Miccondia. The scans made before landing had pinpointed this planet as being unusual for having a breathable atmosphere for humans, despite having no signs of life. On closer inspection, the Pangalactic Federation discovered what appeared to be the ruins of a great civilisation. And now, the young ensign Claude had been sent along with many others to personally investigate the scene.

Claude kicked one of the rocks by his feet, causing it to roll some distance, making a light sound as it did so. _Nothing special about the rocks._ About a kilometre in the distance, a huge dome stood out against the landscape. Other than that is was brown and seemed to have weathered, there weren't any particular features about it. It was one of several on this planet, though not all were in as good condition as this one. Some of the others were broken shells, exposing the insides to the elements. The admiral had decided that this would be the first place to investigate, apparently concerned over the structural stability of those domes who had collapsed for unknown reasons.

Of course, one could expect that if there was anything made intentionally dangerous about these domes, then the standing ones would be where they would be most likely still working, but they seemed abandoned for such a long time that the admiral had dismissed the danger as almost minimal compared to the possibility of falling debris.

Admiral Kenny. Claude tried to think of the man in the full white uniform by that name, but whenever he did, the words 'my father' would quickly follow through his mind. For as long as Claude could remember, it had been that way, before that time there had been no need to think of his old man by more than one term. How did such a man end up as his father? It was a question that Claude preferred not to think about. But trying not to think about something inevitably lead to thinking about it.

Unfortunately, Claude felt he was not the only one who was constantly thinking about the relationship between him and his father. The 3rd Level Science Officer, Ivun Whistler, who followed behind Claude, was a prime example of a person who seemed to think that Claude's achievements were a fortunate result of fortunate claimed parentage rather than ability. It was true that Claude was very young for someone in his position, not yet twenty and already passing his peers to become an Ensign. But that shouldn't mean anything. Claude tried to focus ahead at the dome and ignore Ivun's footsteps behind him.

Ahead of Claude, Admiral Ronyx J. Kenny led the survey team towards the dome. Ronyx was perhaps unique among the entire collection of high-ranking officers in that he would often lead such survey teams personally. Claude thought it rather to risky for someone as important as his father to do this, but all attempts to dissuade him had failed.

When they had come within metres of the dome surface, the party stopped. Claude gazed over the enormous structure, straining his neck to do so. The dome wasn't, on any particular merits, a work of art or interesting to look at, and far more impressive structures had been built on Earth or a multitude of other planets within the Pangalactic Federation, yet Claude couldn't help but stare at it.

"Ensign. We have a job to do." Ivun spoke behind his back. Claude snapped out of his trance, and quickly assessed the situation. His father and several other members of the team were near the dome's perimeter, fiddling with various devices. Most likely trying to determine if there was any radiation or electric fields, but the surveys they had already made from orbit said there weren't, and it seemed unlikely that it would change now. None among the team were making any particular fuss to indicate danger.

"Right, right." Claude hastily moved toward the dome. It seemed to be as if it were cut out of a single piece of metal, with no obvious joints that might represent an entrance. It could be a solid piece of metal for all Claude could tell, although that would seem unlikely given the other broken domes were hollow. But perhaps that was just the view from this side. The dome was well over half a kilometre in diameter, it might have an entrance further along that Claude couldn't see from here.

_I see something odd about that part of the wall over there._

Claude stared at the dome, not more than a metre from him. It was the same as the rest of the dome in appearance. But Claude knew that there was something special about this piece of the dome's wall. But what?

_I'll push it here._

Before he realised it, Claude had placed both his hands against the wall. It was practically vertical here, and slightly rough and dry – like dried concrete but metal – allowing him good traction between the wall and his hands. But what should he do? Pushing it seemed a futile exercise, but Claude tried it anyway with all the strength he had.

To his surprise, the wall felt like it moved. It was very slight, but Claude was sure he felt the wall moved just a millimetre or so. Visibly, the wall looked the same. But Claude was sure that something had happened. Running his hands over the wall, he searched for something to indicate where the wall had moved back, the edge of the panel. Two metres to his left he found it. A tiny edge here where the diameter of the dome changed very slightly, marking the change between two sections. To look at it, Claude could barely see the edge, and he would have passed over it easily if he had not the fortune to feel this area with his hands.

"Dad! I, mean, Admiral! I think I found something over here!" Claude shouted, waving his hands in the air. It was only now that Claude realised that he had moved a good two hundred metres or more from the rest of the survey party.

"Claude?" his father said as he turned from his group. "What are you going all the way over there? You shouldn't go off by yourself like that." Claude's father began to make his way over to Claude.

Claude knew that this would become another example of how he was promoted too young, and the officers would discuss how he was given too much leeway. _They're so jealous. Why can't they see that I really can do this? I'm not some child that needs to be lead around by hand. I'm not. I'm..._

"Ensign?"

Claude snapped back into reality as he realised his father was right in front of him. "Admiral, I think I've found something. Here, this wall is slightly different."

"I don't see anything" said Nartol Al-hari, the party's security officer. "Are you sure you aren't just guessing? Random guessing isn't helpful in situations like this." Nartol turned to give his father his full attention. "Admiral, I would suggest..."

"Look, you can't see it, but if you put your hands here, you can feel that the wall changes over here." Claude ran his hands over the dull brown surface of the dome quickly to demonstrate. "Here! If you feel it, you can find the place where I pushed the wall in ever so slightly!"

"You tried to push the wall in. You think it's a door of some sort, or a week section of the wall?" Claude's father said as he imitated his son, feeling around the wall. "Oh! You're right, there is something here! Good work, Ensign."

"Hmmm..." Nartol murmured quietly. "I can't say that was a particularly wise thing to try. These ruins could be unstable. What if it had collapsed on top of you? You need to be more careful, Ensign."

"This ruin has stood perfectly for thousands of years. I hardly think that a little push would cause the entire..."

"That's enough" said Claude's father loud enough to end the discussion. "Whistler, can to examine this wall and determine how heavy or how thick it might be?"

Ivun moved Claude aside so he could stand in front of the wall that Claude had tried to push in. Pointing the small black multi-purpose scanner at the wall, he altered some of the machine settings for a few moments before replying "I am uncertain exactly what material the wall is made of. But judging from the echo response time and attenuation, I estimate that it is no more than ten centimetres thick."

"Very well, I think we should give it a stronger push" Claude's father said as he moved to press the side of his body against the wall. "Everyone, on my count."

Claude and the rest of the survey party line up along side the admiral in preparation to push the wall down. Although Claude could see that Nartol still did not think this a good idea, Claude knew that Nartol would not go against a decision made by the Admiral.

"One! Two! Push!" Claude's father commanded, and everyone in the survey team let out a grunt as struggled against the wall. There was a deep grating sound, and Claude felt the wall fall in a few centimetres, a fair bit more than what he had achieved by himself. "Ready? One! Two! Push!" Again, the party groaned, as the wall moved, but suddenly Claude himself unsteady as the wall gave way. Claude leaned forward, and he tried to regain his balance, and was able to do so just before in fell down after the wall.

There was a deep rumbling though the ground as the door fell, but it gradually faded away, leaving the planet back in the deathly silence it had been in when the party first arrived. For a while Claude stared at the door they had made. A section of the wall, a square about three metres on each side, was missing. The sides of the wall surrounding it didn't have anything to suggest that the piece removed was ever attached to it properly, they were the same slightly but not too rough surface as the outside of the dome wall.

"Good work everyone" Claude father said. "Can we pick up any readings of radiation or dangerous gases now from inside?"

Ivun examined his miniature Geiger counter, and then his scanner. "Nothing Admiral. If there's anything unhealthy about this place, I don't know about it."

"Well, in that case, let's not waste time. Follow me." Without waiting to see if they would follow, Claude's father entered the darkness of the dome's interior.

***

Inside the dome, Claude looked to the small circle of light that his torch illuminated. Aside from light of he and the other party members, the inside of the dome was completely dark. Claude advanced cautiously, but there was nothing that looked like it would trip him over or fall on top of him, so he paid more attention to what he could see to be large consoles arising out of the floor. They were in a large room, and the ceiling was very high up, but clearly nowhere near the height of the dome's full ceiling, meaning that there was probably at least one more level above them. Claude couldn't see any stairs no matter where he swung the light of his torch, but perhaps this vanished civilisation that had created this place had thought themselves above such things.

"The reception isn't ideal, but we still have communications with the Calnus, Admiral." Nartol said. "I'll arrange a second survey team to follow us in thirty minutes."

"Good." Claude's father replied simply as he stopped to examine one of the consoles, although Claude was too far from him to see exactly what his father was seeing. He was about to go over to examine to same console, when something caught his eye.

_There is a depression in the ground I should look at instead._

Moving quietly over to a large panel attached to the wall, Claude almost fell over as the ground suddenly disappeared beneath him. Luckily, the hole he had stumbled over wasn't really that large. It was more of a shallow depression, as if there were the bottom of a large sphere about twice as tall as Claude. In the middle of the hole, Claude knees were still just above the normal ground level of the room.

Claude leaned over to look at the floor in more detail, but there wasn't anything special about it. It was some time of copper-coloured metal, probably an alloy, but the surface on the ground in the hole was very smooth, on contrast to the floor around it which seemed to have had small regular grooves machined into it, probably for traction.

"Ensign, what are you doing over there?" Claude heard Nartol say. Claude looked up at Nartol's voice and for the second time today was surprised by how far he had separated from the rest of the party.

"Ensign, please do not go off by yourself like that. This is the first study of the area, we have plenty of things to worry about already, and we do not need to add searching for missing team members to that list." Nartol said loudly, cupping his hands so his voice would carry.

"We'd get things done faster if we don't all examine the same piece of equipment." Claude retorted, close but not quite shouting.

"Claude. Please come back here at once!" his father spoke as he turned his attention away from the console and to Claude. "We don't know much about this place, we must be careful!"

"There's nothing to worry about!" Claude said raising his hands. Claude was about to say something about his father and his own less-than-cautious attitude, but decided against it. Claude lowered his hands, and as he did so, he brushed against the console next to the hole.

Centred on Claude, the room suddenly became awash with bright lights from the ceiling and the machinery around noise became to hum, especially the large console next to Claude. Claude was forced to cover his eyes momentarily to give himself a chance to adapt, but when he did so, he realised that the machine next to him was screeching something in an unknown language.

Claude turned to face he father, and saw that he was already halfway to him, running as fast as he could. There was a sudden feeling of weightlessness and then weight again, as everything in his vision was replaced with green, and then black.

**

* * *

**

**Dictionary: Miccondia**

A planet in the Theta sector. Despite it having an atmosphere breathable by humanoids with a high oxygen content, no sign of life to produce this oxygen is known to exist. Ruins of dome shaped buildings indicate that sometime in the distance past, a powerful group of beings came to this planet, but beyond that, nothing is certain.

In many ways, the planet Miccondia shares many characteristics with the planet Styx. They both are planets devoid of life, but possess structures that indicate a civilisation that was more advanced than even the Pangalactic Federation may have once lived there.


	9. C2 02 The Light of Earth

**Author's notes:**

Hopefully, I've got all the names right now. Also, for those wondering, I intentionally left the forest's name as 'Shingo Forest', rather than Sacred Forest'.

* * *

**Chapter 2-2: The Light of Earth**

**SD 366-06-03**

The Admiral of the newly formed Pangalactic Federation and Captain of the Calnus sat quietly alone in his private quarters. In his left hand, he loosely gripped a glass of whiskey, no common commodity on an explorer ship, but Ronyx felt it justified. In this right hand was a note he had hand-written long ago. It was addressed to himself and for the rest of his crew.

"_For a long time, people as sought proof of the existence of gods and demons. But if such proof were to exist, could our world handle the consequences? These gods do exist, and not only in what many religions would call the Heaven, and demons in Hell, but amongst us. We live in a paradox, where such gods are both visible and invisible, a universe with gods who change lives, and are regarded as never being."_

Ronyx stopped reading at that point. He had read the full letter hundreds of times in the past, but not that the time had come to show it, he stopped. Ronyx knew that he could never show it to anyone. He had intended to use the letter as evidence, a starting point for others to start their own search. And to show to his crew that the situation of Claude's disappearance was in fact necessary – despite how bad it looked – but that was pointless too. They were up in arms after apparently losing one of their own and for it to be the captain's own son just exacerbated the situation. However, Ronyx knew that this day was coming. He hadn't known the full details, and today's events were certainly a shock for him, but thanks to his adventures twenty years ago, he knew something like this had to happen. But it would be impossible to explain it to his crew, and no amount of evidence would help. The world didn't work that way.

_The __universe defends its ignorance._

Ronyx stared at the piece of paper one last time before crumpling it up and throwing it into the waste bin aside his desk. He didn't look, but the automated bin immediately went to work, first scanning the paper to make sure it was nothing but paper, and then destroying it without trace. He used this only for the most sensitive of papers that demanded the existence of a hard copy, and it was definitely appropriate now.

Claude had disappeared. Twenty years ago, Ronyx had been caught up in the same adventure. Although he had come out of it alive, it had no been without change. But for Claude... Ronyx didn't know what would be the end for him. There was little Ronyx could do from here, other than deal with his ship and the people on board. To preserve the nature of time, Ronyx had insisted that he be kept ignorant of events that took place, not only in the future, but outside the dimension of time itself.

But what was Ronyx's role now? Did he still have a part he had to play, or was it all just a waste of time? Whatever the case, he knew that Claude could never return home. Claude's journey had started, and he was no longer the Admiral's son.

There was only one person left to talk to.

"Computer, open a secure subspace communication to Earth."

***

Rena carefully brushed her blue hair, placed her crescent moon shaped hairpin to the left side to hold it. She then used a still bowl of water as a mirror to make sure that it was right. She thought about how nice it would be to have a proper looking glass for such things, but such things were hard to come by so far away from a major city.

Rena was planning upon another trip to the Shingo Forest today. Her mother would disapprove, especially after the minor earthquake the village had last night, but Rena felt that one couldn't let such minor things affect her life. Gathering a basket, with which she could make the claim to visit the forest to scavenge berries and wild fruits, she hurried out of her room, hoping to make it out before her mother could object.

However, Rena knew sub-consciously that it wouldn't work, and she was right. She did manage to get out the front door, but she barely managed five steps outside before her mother caught up to her.

"Rena. Where are you going?"

"To the Shingo Forest. For food, see?" Rena raised the basket in front of her.

"Look Rena, why must you insist on going there every day you have off? You know that there are so many rumours these days. About the Sorcery Globe."

"Mum, the Sorcery Globe is far away from here. You know that. Those stories are all from Ell. And besides, while there may be some truth to those rumours in Ell, they're probably a tad exaggerated. You know that nothing's ever happened there, and nothing ever will."

"But Rena, I'm worried. We just had another earthquake last night, which makes three this month already. The stories about the Sorcery Globe may just be stories, but those earthquakes are very real."

"Look mum, I can take care of myself. That earthquake was tiny, I only woke up because you came to check on me afterwards. There're no dangerous animals in the Shingo Forest, and even if there were, I can take care of myself. I can just use a little jujitsu. Or crest magic, either one would be fine. There's no problem."

This conversation wasn't going anywhere. Recently, her mother had been this way every time Rena had gone to the forest, and Rena would have to find a way to make her stop worrying. But not today. "I'm going" Rena said suddenly. Rena turned and left before her mother could stop her, but she still heard her say "Wait!"

_She worries too much__ for nothing._

Before going to the Shingo Forest itself, Rena thought about making a few stops around the village. The general store, run by a wiry man called Hahn, might have some herbs he was lacking. In the Shingo Forest, she might be able to make a few coins by looking for what was needed. The Shingo Forest didn't really have much in the way of herbs, it mostly had various types of berries, but it wouldn't hurt to have a quick look.

"Good morning Rena" said Hahn and Rena entered his shop. "You have a cute outfit today." Rena glanced down to her blue dress. It was pretty cute in her opinion, a loose dress that allowed her plenty of movement that Rena preferred. Rena's mother would often try and sew things like this up for her. Hahn was running through his small stall, apparently counting things.

"What are you looking for?" Rena asked him.

"I got to check my supplies. The earthquake wasn't very large, but it did knock a few things over." Hahn was now under the counter, and his voice became muffled. But he continued his speech uncaringly.

"Ah, you see, that's what I'm here for."

"So what can I get you?" Hahn asked, still under the counter.

Rena stood on her toes to try and look behind the counter as much as possible, but there wasn't anything to see apart from the white shirt on Hahn's back. "Actually, I'm heading to the Shingo Forest this morning. I stopped by to see if you needed any kinds of herbs I could perhaps pick up while I was there."

"That's kind of you, but I can't think of anything special right now. Still, if you find anything you don't want for yourself, I wouldn't mind taking it off your hands." There was a sudden thump noise, and the counter shook for a moment. "Oww." Hahn came up slowly, rubbing his head.

"Are you alright?" Rena said as she raised her hand to help.

"I'm fine. This is hardly something serious enough to require your particular attention."

"Well, alright. I'll be back this afternoon."

Rena heard the shop door open again as someone else entered behind. "'Morning Hahn, morning Rena" said the voice of Father Marshall in a cheerful manner, which is what it normally was. Some people said that they found the voice passive and slightly annoying, but Rena didn't see it.

"Ah, good morning Father" said Hahn. "I take it you're here for this month's parchments and candles from Krosse? I've got them in the back. Bigger than I was expecting, so I'll send someone round to deliver it to you."

"I see they've been perceptive up in the capital." Marshall said simply.

"Perceptive, how?" Rena asked.

"I made no mention of this to them, but attendance has been high recently. Due to the earthquakes I'm sure. I would be happy, but it should not require such events to convince people the importance of attending. I wish people would take these matters more seriously."

"I'm sure that everything will be fine, Father. Well, I should be going." said Rena.

"Very well. I'll see you another time then." Marshall said.

"Okay, bye then" Rena said as she left Father Marshall and Hahn in the wooden shack that was Hahn's shop and home.

***

Rena had always found the Shingo Forest a relaxing place for as long as she could remember. For countless summers, when there was little work to be done, she had wasted entire days here, just taking in the smell of the forest. Massive trees that even five people joined hand to hand couldn't encircle blocked out most of the sun, leaving the floor of the forest shady and covered with long-leaved dark-green plants that didn't grow more than waist high.

Rena sat down on her favourite rock. It was an oddly shaped thing, rough on most of the outsides, but with a fairly smooth cusp on the top that made it quite comfortable to fall into. It was always nice to be able to lie back in the shade and take a little nap. Placing the basket that probably wasn't going to be used for a while down on the soft grass aside the rock, Rena lay out and started at the sky through the leaves of the trees far above her.

At a place like this, Rena liked to imagine that time would stand still. When she came here, it always felt the same, and if it was the same here, then it would always be the same everywhere else. She would not have to grow, or die, or lose others to the march of time. Her friends would not grow apart from her as they got on with their own lives, if things could remain as they were. As she was thinking this, she realised that she was sub-consciously adjusting her hairpin.

She thought to herself, that there didn't really seem to be all that many left in Arlia of similar age to her. Cecile was gone now, and that had forced Dias to leave also. Allen, although strictly speaking being from the mining town Salva to the north rather than Arlia itself, had gone north to...

"Rena?" said a voice that Rena had not heard for quite some time.

Rena sat up suddenly at her name. "Allen?"

In front of her, Allen Tucks was standing in the clearing in front of her, having somehow appeared without Rena hearing his footsteps. He stood still, dressed in what appeared to be the soldier's uniform that he had donned when he had left two seasons ago to investigate the Sorcery Globe. He covered that with a plain cloak, torn in a few places.

"I thought I'd find you here, we always used to spend so much time here." Allen gave a slight knowing smile.

"You're back!" Rena exclaimed as she threw her arms around him. "So soon?"

"Truth be told, I actually came back here first to see you, I bypassed Salva. I'll return to see my father tonight."

Rena stepped back. "Oh, that seems odd. Are you okay?" Allen was one of the few people outside the village that knew of Rena's abilities. His face looked thin and he smelled like... Rena didn't know what, but it was something odd. If he had come here first...

"No!" Allen said reassuringly. "I'm not injured... not in any way your powers can fix, anyway..." Allen's voice drifted away.

"What do you mean?"

Allen looked away from her. "It's just... there were so many of them... demons…"

"It true?! There really are demons on Ell?!"

"I saw them with these very eyes" Allen said, keeping his eyes on the forest floor. "They've taken over Eluria, and are progressing over the continent. My unit encountered them while we were investigating a mine south of there and I was injured in a skirmish. I don't remember exactly what happened next, after that I was in the hospital. But it seems that my father had given the commander of my unit orders without my knowledge that if I was ever in danger, I was to be sent home immediately. And as soon as I was out of the hospital, I was... and here I am." Allen raised his head to look at Rena again. It was now that Rena noticed that Allen's eyes looked very tired.

"Well, at least you're safe, right?"

"I guess so, but what about everyone else?" Allen looked down again for a moment, but then straightened and looked directly in Rena's eyes. "But for the few days I was in the hospital before they sent me home, I was thinking... about you."

"About me?"

"This life I have, it may be gone soon. The demons are so much stronger than they've ever been before. I don't know if it's the doings of the Sorcery Globe, or something else, or just the workings of fate, but I see that the people of this world won't have much longer to live. But, if that's what is going to happen, I want to live the rest of my life happy, not in fear."

"I don't understand Allen."

"Marry me."

"What?!"

"Marry Me Rena."

Rena staggered back a step as she contemplated that she had just heard.

"You just got back! You can't be serious..."

"I am serious. I don't want to live out the rest my life in worrying about when it will end. And why should I? Why not have the life I want, with the woman I love, until that day when it will be taken away from me? Rena, marry me. We can have a happy life until that day, I know it."

"Allen, what's gotten into you? I... like you Allen. As a friend. But I don't love you. I can't marry you. It's not right."

"Why not?" Allen said suddenly. "What's wrong with that?! What's wrong with enjoying our lives before the end of our meaningless existence?! I saw in Ell, those fields, scattered with the dead! The demons do not care if you take arms against them or flee, for they seek your end just the same! God left those innocent souls to die in misery, He cared not for them, why should He care for us! Why do we not take our own lives in hand and live true to ourselves?! What is wrong with that?!" Allen was ranting now, more to the air than Rena, walking back and forth with arms outstretched like someone goading his army for blood. In his head, were they screaming back at him?

"But it's not right Allen! Would you really be happy, living like that? I can't marry someone I don't love to just pretend happiness!"

Allen stoped raving at the forest and stared at Rena, his eyes wide open and bloodshot. "But if you think about, I know you do. I remember the way you used to look at me."

"Allen, this has gone far enough. Look, I think you should probably head home and see your father. He must be worried about..."

Allen grabbed the upper portion of both Rena's arms, and looked at her eye to eye. "Rena, stop lying to yourself, I see it even now. You do love me, you do! We can be happy together!"

"Allen, you're starting to scare me, get off!"

But Allen wouldn't let go. Rena didn't want to attack a friend, but there seemed no choice. Before Allen could react, she circled her forearms and pushed Allen away. Allen stagged back several steps and nearly fell over altogether, and Rena could see he was having trouble steadying himself. She hadn't pushed very hard, so what was it that was making Allen act this way?

"mi aez mE dhaets dhi vail wInd!" a stranger's voice said.

Suddenly Allen was decked flat out on the ground. Over him, a young man knelt, tearing at Allen's clothes. "wer Iz dhi sors uhv It" the young blond man said, intensely searching while Allen was too stunned to do anything. Apparently finding what he was looking for, the man pulled some sort of strange rock from Allen's waist pack, and then threw it away onto a patch of soft grass twenty strides or so away.

Pulling a strange metal device out of his coat, the man with blond hair pointed it towards the rock he had just taken from Allen's clothes, and a moment later, Rena was blinded by a great flash of light.

* * *

**Dictionary: Shingo Forest**

A large and heavily foliaged forest on the southern end of the Krosse continent of Expel, several towns such as Arlia are located on its fringes. Generally a tranquil place, the lack of large dangerous animals makes it a safe place to hunt for smaller game, fell wood or collect nut and berries.

Really, it just a normal forest that's not located anywhere special. Nothing abnormal ever happens here. Right?


	10. C2 03 Interpretation

**Author's Notes:**

Hopefully I have the names right now. Feel free to email me if you think otherwise.

* * *

**Chapter 2-3: Interpretation**

**SD 366-06-03**

After the destroying the demonic stone, leaving a burnt out patch in the grass, Claude first turned to the pretty girl with blue hair. She was looking rather shocked, and without warning she ran off into the trees. There was no real hope of Claude being able to catch her, as she probably knew this place far too well.

"Damn it." He must have scared her off when he used his phase gun right in front of her. To someone from this backwater planet, it must be like magic. Claude felt angry at himself for a moment for violating the UP3, but it wasn't really something he could have avoided. The demonic stone had to be destroyed as quickly as possible, and the phase gun was the only tool Claude had on him that could do it.

There was still the young man with damaged clothes that was sprawled out in front of him. He was groaning, the shock of being suddenly released from the effects of the demonic stone combined with Claude's own physical assault on him the probable cause, although you could never really tell with aliens. Still, he looked really humanoid, the people of this land obviously evolving along the lines of the Galactic Genetic Humanoid Convergence theory. That meant the effects of the stone would probably be the same as what they would be on an Earthling. Claude only wished he had thought of that before he had jumped all over him.

Demonic stones like the one Claude that just destroyed had been one of the topics that his father had insisted that Claude be lectured in repeatedly. Claude had no real interest in focusing his eventual career in either symbology or demonology and found the lessons boring, so why his father had insisted so vehemently that Claude learn about such things was something that Claude didn't know and at the time didn't care, but it seemed fortunate now. These stones that emitted the vile wind, or miasma, would alter a person's desires and ego, inflating them beyond what was healthy with an overly long exposure. Given the strength of the smell Claude had sensed, this case probably wasn't too bad.

Kneeling over the man, Claude lightly slapped at his thinly bearded face. "Hey buddy, you alright?" The young man groaned, but not in a way that suggested serious injury but more like just sore muscles, so he would probably recover quickly. But before he did so, Claude took the chance to take a translator out of his pocket and slip it in his right ear. Holding it there with the palm of his hand, he started questioning again before the man could try to remove it.

"Hello? Are you okay? You were affected by the demonic stone, you will recover soon. Are you alright?" _I really hope this guy is actually a nice person under normal circumstances, I'd hate to think I'd returned a demonic bastard back to being a good-old humanoid bastard._

"Guuu… I'm… okay" the man said slowly, lying on his back. "Where am…"

"Now slow down a bit, let's get you… hey.!" Claude interrupted himself to prevent the man taking the translator out. "Leave that there, you won't be able to understand what I say if you remove that. Take it easy, alright?"

"What happened just now? Where is…" The man began searching his pockets for something. Claude assumed he was looking for the now lost stone, but instead he pulled out a small piece of paper from inside his jacket, a letter most likely.

"The stone is gone. You were under the effect of miasma, or vile wind, as I call it. Maybe you have another name for it. Basically, demonic influence from that stone you carried. Sorry about tackling you like that, but I smelled it and right away I had to destroy it." Claude tried to put on a weak smile to settle him.

"Demonic? Is that what happened…?"

"Yeah. I know a little about them, but before that you should find a nicer place than this to lie down. You have a bed somewhere on this planet I hope. Anyway, do you live around here? Is there somewhere nearby you can rest? And maybe you should worry about that letter a little later."

"Planet? Those things in the sky?" Allen said.

"Err… nevermind. Where are we? That's most important right now."

"We're in the Shingo Forest, Arlia village is a short walk in that direction." The man said while pointing in the same direction as the girl had ran off into. "And this letter, it's a memento I took with me when I went away. I read it all the time, but I read into it things that weren't there. I've ruined it now." He paused for a moment and stared at the letter, stroking in gently before putting it back into his pocket. "I have to go… apologise… argh!" The man yelled out as the tried to stand and suddenly fell as his legs refused to support him.

"Easy there buddy." Claude said. "Here, I'll help you" and Claude lifted the man's arm over his shoulder to hold his weight. "Come on, let's go."

The two of them began to shuffle slowly towards the direction the man indicated. "So, I don't think I've properly thanked you stranger. My name is Allen Tucks. May I ask who you are and where you are from?"

"Well, Allen, my name is Claude Kenny. I'm from… well, I have no idea where I am, but I think I'm pretty far from where I'm from."

As they were walking, Claude realised that he was going to have a very hard explaining something to people from a planet without concepts such as space travel and teleportation, and it was going to be made harder by the fact that he had no idea how he got here.

***

"Oooo…" Rena walked back and forth over a small patch of forest about halfway between the Arila and the encounter with the stranger with the flashing light. He was very mysterious, suddenly appearing out of nowhere like that. And that weapon, just what was that?! She had never seen the like, a brilliant beam of light that instantly destroyed that rock the man had taken from Allen.

But, what was she to do now? Who was that guy? And what about Allen? He was acting very oddly, perhaps he really was sick, despite his protests. If that was the case, then maybe she should go back and help. But then again, Allen was… uncomfortable like that.

Frozen in indecision, Rena heard quiet and limping footsteps approaching over the undergrowth of the forest. From behind a large tree, she saw Allen and the stranger slowly making their way towards Arlia. Allen was very obviously not in perfect health, leaning on the stranger as he was. The seemed to be talking and even smiling, as if they knew everything was okay. Although Allen was speaking normally, the stranger spoke only gibberish. But Allen talked back to him as if he understood everything. What kind of man was this strange person? To have appeared and solved every problem at once?

Before Rena could think about it any further, she suddenly found herself standing in front of Allen and the blond stranger, without memory of having walked into their path. "blai mi Its dhaet guhrl" said the strange blond man. He seemed… well, Rena thought it was most likely he was surprised at something, but Rena didn't really know what a man who could wield such a weapon could see in her that was surprising. Allen was a bit shocked, but refused to look at her, so Rena wasn't entirely sure what he was thinking.

"Err… well, thanks for helping me out back there." Rena thought she had better say something. Although there had just been a small smile on his face that had disappeared in surprise momentarily, it now returned a fair bit larger. Rena figured it was partly genuine pride and partly humility. He also seemed to understand perfectly, even thought Rena had no idea what he was saying. If he knew how to speak her language, why not just speak it back?

"nat aet awl so dont no for shur hwuht hae pEnd baek dher buht eh ni we du yu maind If yu wer dhIs" was the unintelligible reply. With the right hand, which was not supporting Allen's weight, he reached into his pocket and took out a small rock and he suddenly learned forward to the side of Rena's head with it, trying to place it in her ear. Rena backed away instinctively, and his hand only just brushed her hair.

The stranger looked quickly at Allen, then just as quickly back to Rena. "ad for tu hyu mE noyds fruhm dhi sem plae niht yu haev plae niht li shept irs Iz It e jehn dEr thing"

"It's okay Rena." Allen said, although he still refused to look at her. "It's some sort of listening rock. If you have it in your ear, everything he says is perfectly understandable." Allen took a similar rock out of his ear to show Rena it was there, and then quickly put it back in.

The blond man held his arm outstretched, and Rena tentatively picked up the small shiny grey rock and wedged it in her ear. "This is quite uncomfortable."

"Allen wasn't complaining. It must be your ears."

"I do not have weird ears!" Rena said without thinking. Rena hated how her ears were so much pointer than those of everyone else. Because they stuck out to the side, it wasn't very easy to cover them with her hair. Everyone in Arlia, and indeed, most people everywhere did not comment on them as being a deformity, and of course there were far worse things possible. Other than the ears, Rena didn't look out of the ordinary at all, but they did serve as a visible reminder of her unique abilities.

"You don't even realise that you understand me do you? Oh man, I hope I don't have to go through this sequence every time I meet someone new."

Rena nearly fell backwards in shock. "Ahh!"

"Well, I'm glad that I caught up with you. Everything's okay now." He paused for a moment, as if considering how to say whatever it was he wanted to say. "So, I'm Claude. I'm was just… travelling past and sniffed that demonic stone. But don't worry, it's all gone now."

Rena didn't even realise the stone had been demonic until this Claude had mentioned it, although it did explain everything.

"I'm Rena." As she introduced herself, Rena curtsied a little. She wasn't sure if it was appropriate, since this man hadn't identified himself as any sort of nobility, but it was better to be slightly overly polite than possibly rude. But not too much, in case he thought she was mocking him. His previous ear comment suggested that he wasn't being too formal though.

"Ah, yes, Allen here said that's who you were. Look, Allen said that you're from this nearby village? We should go there and allow Allen to recover." As if in reaction to this comment, Allen now shrugged himself free from Claude's support and began standing on his own. He still was far from perfect, but he looked a little more… normal. "I'm fine, I won't be needed aid from either of you" was all he said.

"Oh. Um… sure." Rena said. The party of three then made their way through the forest, with Rena leading and Allen staying at the rear, since Claude could not convince him to come to the front. It wouldn't take long to get back to Arlia, but there was quite a lot to learn on the way. But where to start?

***

As they had walked back to the village, Rena thought over some ideas as to what Claude had actually done. It wasn't possession exactly, but something that was influencing Allen was caused by demons, and so when Claude had smelled it, he had effectively saved both of them by destroying the demonic stone with his weapon. A weapon that Claude had said was a beam of light.

Rena had thought very carefully about what the appearance of Claude, his odd and interesting clothes and appearance, his weapon, his knowledge of demons and his actions meant. A very unique combination of talents and artefacts meant something special about their owner. Combined with the recent stories of calamity across the globe, his sudden appearance couldn't be a mere coincidence.

So when Rena and Allen returned to Arlia village, Rena asked Allen to show Claude around the village while she returned home to mother to collect something. Allen looked as if he were suspicious of Rena's motives but didn't say anything, and thankfully Claude didn't seem to notice.

Allen, who seemed much healthier now and was not even limping any more, first started to direct Claude to the local church. The tall stone walls that had been weathered over the years and stained glass windows made it the largest and most artistic building in the village, and also the most obvious landmark. And while Allen guided Claude away, Rena walked slowly until she passed the nearest building and once she was out of slight, sprinted all the way home.

Barging into her own house was enough to shock her mother into almost dropping the pile of clothes she was carrying and preparing to set up to dry.

"Rena! Back alred---"

Rena didn't allow her mother the chance to ask unimportant questions or make unimportant comments. "Mum, never mind that! In the forest, I think I met him! The Warrior!"

"Met… who?"

"You know, THE Warrior of Light!" Rena said, keeping herself from yelling.

"Dear, are you alright?"

Rena guessed her mother wouldn't take it as true without some explanation. "Look, I was in the forest, and then Allen showed up…

"Allen is the Warrior?"

"…but he wasn't himself, and he was acting weird, and then Claude appeared…"

"Who's Claude?"

"…so Claude knew right away that something was wrong with Allen, and so he had this Sword of Light and destroyed this rock…"

"What does a rock have to do with it?"

"…and returned Allen to normal and saved everyone!" Finishing her story, Rena only then realised that she had spoken the entire thing without taking a single breath, which she now had to make up for.

"Could you repeat that? You need to slow down a bit."

This was starting to get frustrating. "It's the Warrior of Light, you know!" Rena's hands were making rapid circular motions in the air, as if that would somehow help the understanding.

"I know of the story Rena."

"Well it's not a story! He's here, in the village!" Rena looked around the house. It was fairly much the same way that it was when she had left this morning. Her mother was halfway though washing clothes and various garments were still piled up in one corner ready to be cleaned. The wooden table in the centre of the house was still covered up with the remains of breakfast that had not been cleared away. Of course, most days this would not matter. Most days didn't have the hero of the entire world visiting her either.

"Why was I so lazy to leave everything uncleaned?!"

***

"So, that over there is Rena's house" said Allen, pointing to a short wooden house by the small river that passed though the town. Its white flaky paint matched well with every other house in the village, so Claude hoped he could later remember which one it was. "It's been there a while so it doesn't look that great, but they keep it fairly sturdy."

"She's been gone a while. Do you think it's okay if I go up and knock?"

"Why wouldn't it? You're a hero for today."

"Never mind" Claude said with a shake of his head. Claude quickly dismissed the fantastical yet morbid idea that this village's society and culture could be just like those found on Earth, except for the concept of knocking on someone's door being a crime worthy of lynching.

"I'm going to see the mayor, if you don't mind. If you're today's hero, then I'm the villain, and I need to meet with the authorities. Anyway, I don't want to see Rena right now." Before continuing, Allen learned closely and leaned to whisper into Claude's ear "Umm, if she should ask, could you just tell Rena that I don't remember anything?" Before waiting for a reply, Allen suddenly retreated with an embarrassed look on his face and he promptly left Claude alone outside Rena's house as he headed up the road towards the houses located on the highest point of the village.

The door to Rena's house was made of wood, but unpainted and unmarked in any way. It didn't even have a lock. Claude knew that people who lived in close-knit villages located far from outside influence like this often didn't need any such thing, and probably trusted each other implicitly. It might be nice to live in such a place.

About now, Claude had noticed that although they weren't trying to make a show of it, there were quite a few people around him in various houses staring at him. The younger children were bolder or less subtle as the case may be, and a couple of them actively pointed at him while talking amongst themselves about who Claude might be. An outsider like him in a village where every day was probably the same was bound to make some commotion. Claude didn't want to just barge in, but neither did he want to stand outside the door with everyone looking.

Before knocking, Claude just slightly moved the door ajar, and he could hear voices from behind it. One was Rena's and the other was an older woman who Claude quickly established as being Rena's mother. Trying to not be too obvious about it to the other villagers, Claude looked though the thin gap in the doorway into a house. Inside, he could see Rena pass his view point as she quickly moved back and forth, carrying things to and fro in a slight panic.

"Rena, why are you in such a rush?" said her mother.

"Because! I can't entertain such a person while this house is in this mess! I've got to neaten it up a bit before Allen brings him here!"

Suddenly, an older woman with her dark blue hair covered in a scarf and wearing a long well-worn dress appeared in Claude's view though the doorway, and looked directly at him.

"Uh, Rena, dear. I think there's a young man outside the house right now."

The house went very quiet, and then Rena suddenly came up to the door in a hurry and opened it fully. She had a look of part embarrassment and part joy on her face, as if she was happy he was here, just not right this second. She was trying to hold some dirty cloth behind her back, out of Claude's view. "Haha. Uh, hello Claude!"

* * *

**Dictionary: Arlia**

An old and isolated village in the country of Krosse on the planet Expel, it is about as far from the troubles of demons as could be possible. One of the few towns located along the outskirts of the Shingo forest, it is well provided for in terms of agricultural grounds and building materials. The only worn path out of town leads to the north, where the larger mining town of Salva is located. The village itself is fairly ordinary, containing nothing in particular to separate it from other villages located nearby.

In recent times, Arlia has experienced several mild earthquakes, which have not caused any great damage, but lead to suggestions among the close-knit community of Arlia that it is not as free from the problems that worry the rest of the rest of the world as they might hope.


	11. C2 04 Warrior of Light Maybe

**Chapter 2 – 4: Warrior of Light Maybe**

**SD 366-06-03**

"He's a nice-looking, strong young boy that you've found, Rena" her mother said.

"Ahh," Claude said, his face going slightly red at the compliment and trying not to stare. He didn't make any intelligible words yet, he must have known that her mother wouldn't understand without the magic listening stone. And why did mother have to say such an opening comment? The Warrior of Light would naturally be strong and handsome, but he would of course also be humble. Drawing attention to these things wouldn't help in making him comfortable.

"Errr, yes, I suppose he is." Trying her best to concentrate on what was important, a good first impression, Rena considered how to achieve it.

"Ummm… you know what mum? I'll just show Claude around more of the village, okay?"

"Of course you will. Don't worry, I'll have everything ready when you get back."

What was she talking about? The rest of the cleaning, Rena supposed. Or maybe some food. That would be most appropriate; her mother would want to do at least that much for the Warrior for helping her daughter out. Claude seemed a bit bemused by the whole thing, so before he could say anything Rena pushed him out of the house and closed the door behind her.

"I wasn't really expected to get kicked out so quickly." Claude said.

"Don't worry about it. I already told mum about everything that happened in the forest, so you don't have to explain anything to her."

"Really?"

"Yes, it's fine. But first, I'll give her some time to cook, and show you some things" and Rena started walking off as she finished her words, dragging Claude along by the arm.

They came to the centre of the village. In the centre was a statue of a person looking at the Sun and shading their eyes, slightly shorter than Rena. Well, it was supposed to be a person, but it was an abstract, so it didn't really have many features such as individual fingers or eyes, it was more an impression made by the highly exaggerated curves of the red and grey stone. Around the statue were many flowers that had been planted by other villagers over the years.

"Do you know who made this?" Claude asked after staring at the statue for a while.

"It was a young sculptor named Vandeis who made it a while ago. I found him a nice person as I recall. I heard that he eventually moved to Krosse to try and make a living as a sculptor there."

"Oh, well, that's good for him I suppose. I wonder what tools he used to make it?"

"A chisel of course." _How else would one make a statue?_ "So, what do you think of it?"

"The sculpture? It's… pretty, I guess. I don't really know that much about art, I have to say. I think it's fairly impressive." He didn't sound very convinced. But he must have seen many others and maybe he was just trying to avoid letting Rena know he thought the village statue was unimpressive.

"Of course you've seen bigger ones. You must have travelled all over the continent, so I'm sure you've seen the great statue of the Winged Goddess in Kurik. I've heard that one is taller than a three story house, and is also a fountain that people can make wishes in."

"Actually, I've never been there."

"Oh." Kurik was a major port town, particularly for people going to Ell. There were other ways to reach the continent of Krosse, but most travellers would go through Kurik sometime in the lives. "Where have you been?"

"Ummm… well, like I said earlier when we were leaving the forest, I've been to many places, but none around here, so there's not much I can really say."

"What are they like?" It seemed very difficult to get information out of Claude for some reason. Was everyone where Claude was from like that?

"The places I've been… well, I think the air here is much cleaner in general."

"The air is cleaner?"

"Oh yes." Claude took a deep breath in through his nose. "Where I come from, the air is very polluted in some places. Well, not on the ships, it's cleaned there, but in the cities, it can get quite dirty with all the pollution."

"That's terrible. But you can breathe all the air you like here." Rena gave a small laugh which Claude reciprocated, but stopped when she thought about what Claude had just said. "Hang on, on your boats, you clean the air? How do you clean the air?"

"Oh… well… it's not really 'cleaning' the air. Out in... err... the ocean, the air is cleaner away from the pollution, is all."

"Well, of course it would be. Anyway, since we're talking about boats, let me show you the river boat we have here…"

***

"Well, you missed lunch, and it's more of and early dinner. It's a bit larger than normal, but as I said, you missed lunch." Either 'a bit' was an understatement, or the people of this world ate more in one meal than an Earthling would eat in three. Claude felt that it was more likely the former. The table was covered in plates with food that Claude didn't recognise, except to say that some were cooked animals and others were plants. Kind of colourful at least.

Westa said as the three of them sat down on the uneven wooden table. Rena and her mother sat opposite each other, leaving Claude trapped between them. Just before the food, they had lent Westa another of Claude's translators, which of course had lead to more of the same questions, but perhaps if he just offered his own conversation, things would go more smoothly.

"This reminds me of this time I visiting my friend Rick. His mother also insisted on preparing us a dinner. It was the first time I had visited their house, and his mother had synth'd up a hot piz-" Claude stopped himself. He was trying to establish a common ground, but he was about to say 'pizza', which they obviously wouldn't understand. He needed to think about how he was going to do this.

"Synth'd up?" Rena asked.

_Oops. Skipping the inappropriate parts is harder than I thought._ "Err… it's just a term that people where I come from use to mean a particular type of cooking." _Is that enough? Probably._

"But it was hot? Right away?" Rena persisted. How many unexplained 'holes' did his story really have? Today had shown that it would be harder than he thought to keep everything straight yet digestible to the people of an underdeveloped planet.

"Umm… yeah. She's really fast at it." That sounded really weak in Claude's mind, but what else was there?

"I love cooking. I wonder if I can learn such a technique? How's synthing food work?" Rena was making it very difficult for lost travellers everywhere with her curiosity.

"Could you learn it? Umm… well, I guess probably not. Right now that is. I mean, it requires very particular utensils." _That had to work right? She can't ask about items I don't have. I'll start eating, and then I'll have an excuse to not talk._

Claude had just been about to take a bite out of some sort of leafy vegetable when he suddenly realised that he had forgotten to test the food to see if an Earthling could eat it. He could probably eat it without it killing him, as Rena and the others looked very humanoid and probably had similar dietary needs, and he couldn't imagine a plant that was like lettuce needing to evolve defence systems against humanoids. But to know for sure, he would need to use his compound sampler. _How do I use it without a million more questions from Rena?_ And since he was the guest and Rena spent the great majority of her attention in his direction, there didn't seem much chance to doing it stealthily.

"What's the matter with the food?" Rena asked.

"Ah… nothing. It's just… could I have some water? I'm really thirsty."

Rena got up immediately. "Oh, that's all? You should have asked sooner."

"Don't worry dear." Westa said, also standing up. "I'll get some."

Water would have its own share of difficulties with microbes, particularly in an isolated village like this one, but he could at least test the food while one of his hosts went to get the water and the other was looking in that direction.

While Westa was on the other side of the room and as soon as Rena took her eyes of him as she was sitting down again, Claude reached into his jacket and reached for the analyser. Pulling out the device from out of his jacket, he quickly placed it in his lap, out of view of the others. Rena jerked her head as if she thought she saw him move, but wasn't sure enough to say anything. While stabbing the food with one hand, Claude quickly selected a wide scan of everything within one metre. Silently, the analyser went to work, scanning not only his food, but also the table and Claude himself. Within a few seconds, it had determined that if he really wanted to, he could eat the table and not die.

"Why do you keep looking down like that?" Rena asked.

"Ah… nothing." How many times did he have to say that today? Now that he had confirmed the food as safe, he just had to find out if it actually tasted like things he was used to. Claude never imagined eating a basic meal could ever be so hard.

***

It was sometime after the lengthy meal had finished, and Claude was lying back in the wooden chair trying to be relaxed, while continuous reminding himself that is was rude to slouch and so trying very hard not to do it. Not only that, but Claude thought he had better eat everything that he had been given. _Then again, people who live in underdeveloped villagers like this are often in want of food, aren't they? Was it really okay for me to eat that much? But now that it's been picked and cooked, it's too late to try and store it again._

Westa had asked Rena to collect someone called Regis and bring him here. And to save trouble, Claude had already given away one of his translators again so that this Regis could use it. He was going to run out of translators very quickly at this rate if they weren't returned when he left. Westa had already finished clearing the table of left over food. So while Rena was gone, Claude took the opportunity to make light conversation about Rena.

"Mrs... er..."

"Landford."

"Mrs. Landford. I… I think Rena seems a very curious person." _Everyone thinks of curiosity as a good think, right?_

Westa looked at Claude, as if she was suddenly very confused or something. "You're asking about Rena?"

_Was that bad? It was more a comment than a question, really. Perhaps I've gotten too relaxed after the meal and forgotten about the possible differences in culture._

"Did Rena give you something that belongs to her?" She asked slowly. _Does she think I have other motives?_

"No, not really. Like what?" Claude said, consciously keeping his voice light-hearted.

Westa looked even more confused. "You are perhaps as Rena says, a very unusual person. Warrior of Light? Maybe she is right after all."

"I don't understand, what's this 'Warrior of Light'?"

Before Westa could answer, the door to her house opened, and Claude could see Rena lead an old man into the house. The old man was talking his time, walking while leaning on a stick with one hand, the other holding on to Rena in case he needed extra support. His long red robes distinguished him from the others here in Arlia, giving him an air of importance. Claude presumed that he must be the head of the village, here to investigate him.

Rena was the first to speak. "Regis, this is Claude, the Warrior of Light. He helped me in the forest as Allen must have told you."

"It is quite clear that Allen didn't tell me anything near as much as you imagine." Regis said. "Now, young man, Claude is it?"

"Claude Kenny, sir."

"My name is Regis, the representative head of Arlia." Regis stroked his impressive grey beard as he talked. "And Rena claims you are the Warrior of Light."

"Good day Regis." Customs again were confusing, but by now Claude had reasoned he could bluff though those as ignorant if need be. It was true after all. "I've heard that several times, but I still do not understand what this 'Warrior of Light' is."

"But… how can you not know if you are the Warrior of Light?" Rena said with a slight strain of desperation in her voice.

"Now, now, let's not get ahead of ourselves." Regis turned his full attention to Claude. "Now, I think I should like to sit down, and I wish to hear everything you have to say about yourself."

Okay, this was it. Time to explain something that they couldn't possibly understand. And Regis would probably be a lot less forgiving of any mistakes than Rena was. Claude tried to figure out the best way of dealing with it that he could as they all sat down at the table. "Well, my name is Claude, and I'm a traveller, as I've already told Rena."

"And where might you be travelling to? Krosse maybe?"

"Well, nowhere in particular."

"And where have you come from? As much as I love this village, I must say that to the outsider, Arlia is quite a fair distance from anywhere of interest."

"Well, I can't really say much about that either. I don't really know how I got here."

"You don't know where you're travelling to and you don't know where you're travelling from? Quite unusual for a traveller, I would think. And this thing in my ear that Rena lent me is certainly not something an ordinary traveller would need."

"That's all I can really say though."

"At the risk of being rude, I must say you are lying" Regis said suddenly.

"Why would you say such a thing?"

"It is very clear that you are not ordinary person. This earrock alone is evidence of that. Do you know the story of the Warrior of Light?"

"No."

"Hmm… Well, the basic myth states that at a time of crisis, the Warrior of Light will appear and save the world. It's quite well known in these parts. And many would say that now is a time of crisis."

_Now? It seems pretty peaceful here, except… Allen's stone?_

"You see, although the effects that are felt here are little, nothing more than minor earthquakes at worst, the rest of the country is preparing for war. A war with the demons."

Claude didn't say anything. It did remind him of twenty years ago though. His parents had been involved in a war, demons and much more included, although they had never told many details about it on the public record or to Claude privately. From what Claude understood, the demon world was connected to every planet, so it would be unlikely that the demons that were attacking this planet to be totally unrelated to those who attacked Roak. But there was still a lot of leeway in that statement.

"Allen told me of a stone from the demons that he brought back with him." Regis continued.

"Yes. I destroyed it, because it emits a malicious influence through the miasma. Those who are aware of its nature can usually resist it, but it can still have unpredictable effects on personality."

"And your weapon, that was the Sword of Light?" Rena asked a little excitedly.

"Ah... not exactly. I do have a weapon that uses light, but it's more a projectile weapon than a sword." _I hope saying that doesn't violate the UP3. I'd better not show them the phase blaster. Rena has seen it, but her mother and Regis don't have to._

"Very well. Regardless, you do have this weapon. It would sound like a very useful thing in the battle against the demons and the Sorcery Globe."

"The Sorcery Globe? I've never heard of such a thing." Claude said.

"But… you're supposed to save us from the Sorcery Globe!" Rena said.

"Now, Rena. You must be more patient. Claude, allow me to explain again. The Sorcery Globe is, well, we're not sure what, but it fell near Eluria in Ell some six months ago. And since that time Krosse has lost contact with the Kingdom of Ell and the demons have apparently attacked that country."

"So, the Sorcery Globe is the cause of the demonic attack?"

"It must be!" Rena said.

"Maybe. There is no actually proof. It may be that it was just an ordinary meteorite and the demonic attack is a coincidence, but I don't believe in coincidences this large. And a meteorite alone would not explain all the problems that have recently occurred" Regis said.

_If the source of problems is from space, then it may be aliens with technology advanced enough to allow me to escape this planet! _

"Regis, if I may, I would like to investigate it, the Sorcery Globe."

"Oh, would you now?" Claude thought Regis might be hiding a small smile behind his beard.

"Yes."

"So then you are the Warrior of Light!" Rena said.

"No Rena. I am not this Warrior of Light you say. I'm only here because of an accident; I didn't mean to come here." Claude paused as he considered what to do. This village certainly had a special charm about it, and Claude could easily imagine himself living here until such a time as the Federation was able to track him down. But how long would that be? There were more than a hundred billion galaxies in the known universe and he could be in any of them. The Federation had not yet reached out beyond part of the Milky Way. While the Sorcery Globe sounded as though it may be dangerous, Claude knew he would have a much better chance in learning something from it than anyone else from this planet. "But as I have no way of returning immediately, I am interested in finding out about the Sorcery Globe. Learning about it might be helpful to me, and if I learn anything that can stop the problems poised by demons, then we all win."

"You offer this, and yet you still deny you are the Warrior of Light?" Regis stroked his long grey beard thoughtfully. "Well, as it may, you can of course investigate it if you wish. I have no reason to force you to stay here, and I couldn't even if I had a reason. However, might I suggest you stay the night at my house, and we can discus the details more tomorrow?"

Claude quickly decided that this was a good idea. It wouldn't make sense to leave without learning more about this planet first, and although he had technical equipment such as his communicator, general analysers and translators, he didn't have any money, food or basic travelling equipment.

"I think I'll take up that offer. Thank you very much."

"Wait!" Rena said "I should go too!" Claude was certain she didn't mean Regis' house.

"Rena!" Westa said. "What are you thinking? It is much too dangerous!"

_Rena wants to come with me?_

"I think I should! For starters, Claude would need both a guide and a translator. He can't hand out the listening stones to everyone he meets."

"Well, I suppose that is true." Claude said quietly. It would be best not to sound too encouraging right now. But Rena's attention was now focused solely on convincing her mother.

"Rena, you've barely left the village your entire life. All you know about guiding would be little more than the things that you've read in books." Westa said.

"So? That's still _more_ than Claude knows."

"Anyway, it's far too dangerous. We're talking about demons here. I can't allow you to go on a journey."

"It's won't be dangerous. If Claude thinks he can handle it, I'm sure it'll be fine. I can take care of myself just fine with martial arts."

"Dear, there's a big difference between martial arts and a Sword of Light."

Claude thought about interrupting with 'It's not a Sword of Light', but quickly decided now wasn't the time.

"But mum!" Rena was sounding exasperated now. "This is a really good chance to find out about myself!" Claude noted that Rena was fingering some sort of necklace or locket that was hidden under her shirt. "I can't live like this forever and not try to find out about it."

It was about this time that Regis stood up, stopping the conversation. "Well Rena, your mother does have a point. We can't assume such a journey would be as easy as you imagine it to be as if it were some sort of story. But in any case, I think my work here is done for the day. Now, if you don't mind, I will be heading back, I have several other things to consider this night besides our guest. Claude, will you be coming with me?"

"Oh, right." Claude quickly stood up and pushed his chair in. "Umm… I suppose I will see you tomorrow. Goodnight, Rena, Mrs. Lanford." It wasn't even dark yet outside, but he didn't want to get between mother and daughter as they debated Rena's future. Claude followed Regis' slow steps outside and closed the door behind him. It would definitely be nice if Rena came along, as she would provide good company, but it wasn't his place to argue such a thing.

***

Claude lay awake on his bed on the second floor of Regis' house, considering the events of this evening. It would be difficult to sleep tonight, but he needed to rest up. With his communicator out of range, there didn't appear to be any way to contact the Calnus or anyone else of the Federation from here, and so this Sorcery Globe seemed to only option in terms of finding something that might get him off this planet. If it was as dangerous as suggested, it might also be advanced enough that Claude could use it get away from here.

Although, that was really a bit of a pipe dream. If the globe itself wasn't some sort of ship itself, the Claude would still be just as stuck. Claude was a military person, trained in various infantry combat techniques and battle tactics for leading groups of personal. His engineering ability would probably exceed that of anyone else from this planet by a good margin, but would still be a long way off from developing something that could enhance the speed and range of his faster-than-light communicator. And such things required precision tools that he didn't have.

It was at least an hour after everyone had gone to bed and extinguished all the lights of the village, leaving it pitch dark. Such a scene, Claude could never remember seeing before. In the Federation, there was always light, everywhere, and only on purpose and for a limited time could one obtain the pure darkness. In Arlia, it would become like this every night. It was a natural part of life. Although it was normal for it to be dark, it somehow felt wrong to Claude to see exactly the same thing whether his eyes were open or closed.

Claude heard a faint knock on wood. Someone was at the front door of house. Trying to be as silent as he could, Claude moved to the window. The shutters would creak when he opened them, but perhaps that could be dismissed as wind. Moving them just enough that he could get a glimpse below, he saw a person standing at the doorway holding a candle to guide them through the night. They were apparently talking to Regis, and Claude figured there was a high probability it was about him, so he decided to try and listen in. It was easy, but after a few muffled words, he began to understand what they were saying.

"It is very late, Westa, and I am a very old man. What in the name of the Seven Devils could be so important that you had to see me at this time?" complained Regis's voice.

"It is… that is, I need to ask you a question."

"Now?"

"Yes, now."

"Oh, very well. Since I am up, you might as well ask."

"It's…" Suddenly, Westa cocked her head upwards, looking directly at the window where Claude was standing. Claude was so surprised that he fell backwards to the floor.

_Darn it, they're sure to figure out that I was listening!_

Still, now that they knew, there was no point in not continuing to listen to the rest. And anyway, it was too dark in Claude's room, so Westa wouldn't know if he chose to continue on listening in or not. He might as well, he needed to learn everything he could on this planet as quickly as possible.

"…did he say?" Westa said. _Missed the first part. Was that question about me just now?_

"You came to ask me that?"

"It's important." Westa pleaded.

"Only that he was in the forest and Allen and..." Here, Regis abruptly paused. It was a good ten seconds before he started again. "Look. It's very late, and I am too old to remember conversations at a time like this."

There was another silent period of about ten seconds, and Claude imagined that Regis would be getting impatient. And cold, for the night wasn't freezing, but it could hardly be called warm either.

"Never mind, I think I understand now" Westa said, almost too quiet for Claude to hear.

"Westa, I must insist, this is most unusual."

"It is, and I'm sorry Regis. But I thank you for indulging this woman's concern."

"Hmph. This cold air is making you say nonsense."

"Perhaps it is. But all the same, I have learned from this. Good-night."

After that, Claude could not hear Regis' next comment, but it sounded like some sort of grunt. Deciding that after he latched his front door shut, Regis would probably head up here to ask Claude about what was going on, Claude quickly climbed into bed in order to pretend to be asleep. But after waiting for a while, he decided that Regis wasn't going to show up after all, and eventually he fell into the sleep he needed.

***

Rena lay dead on the forest floor, her blood soaking into the soft grass. Although she was dead, the pain would not go away. It would go on, and on.

And as she lay there, Dark Sphere made the same command it always did.

"Again!"

***

Today seemed as though it was going to be nice.

Rena had always found the Shingo Forest a relaxing place for as long as she could remember. For countless summers, when there was little work to be done, she had wasted entire days here, just taking in the smell of the forest.

But… although she had come to this place many times before to relax the day away, this time seemed different. It was as though someone was watching her. Rena looked in every direction into the forest from where she was standing aside her favourite carved rock, but could not see anyone. Above her, a gentle breeze through the leaves was the only thing she could hear. _Am I just being silly? I'm letting pointless worry ruin an otherwise perfect day._

After standing there for a moment, she decided it was silly after all. Why would anyone come to this place? She was about to get up onto the rock to lie back when suddenly a presence was behind her. She spun quickly to see a soldier approaching her with a big grin on his face. He had dark hair, and his face showed that he had not shaved recently. He looked familiar, and he seemed to recognise her.

"Who… are you?"

His expression of happiness was replaced by one of confusion. "Rena? Don't you… recognise me?"

"Should I? How do you know my name?"

"It's me! Allen! You… you gave me this letter before I left for the investigation with the army to Ell, remember?" He pulled out a slip of paper from under his coat and handed to her. Opening it up, Rena began to recognise her own handwriting. The letter claimed to be a wish of good fortune and reminder of friendship. It didn't look fake. _But if it's real, why can't I remember?_

A voice echoed behind her "Foolish little girl…" Rena turned around and looked with open jawed shock first at the body of Claude, lying on the ground dead. His blood had soaked though his clothes and was slowly seeping into the ground.

Standing above him was the biggest man Rena had ever seen. He had to be more than twice Rena's height topped with sleeked back grey hair. He was wearing some kind of long white robe over armour, but most strange was the device that he wore over his left eye and ear. He would be handsome if he did want to look the part. Standing still, he looked down at Claude's lifeless body with a stony expression on his face, as if to indicate that he had been responsible for this tragedy but considered it meaningless.

_Claude?!_

And behind him was the speaker. The Dark Sphere, hovering in the air, a perfectly black hole in the universe, leading to the infinite abyss.

"Who are you?!" Allen said, drawing his sword and moving to stand in front of Rena. But before Rena realised what was going on, the armoured man had moved with incredible speed and snapped Allen's neck without even looking at him. Allen fell to the ground wordlessly with an expression of horror on his face. Rena could hardly believe it.

_What's going on?!_

Rena voiced the answer to her own question. "Rena, I've tried to reach you many times. I do not know where you are or what has happened there, but something has occurred that means I can reach you. Have the others reached you before? Do they know enough to appear in your world? Do they know enough that they can make you understand? Or am I the first?"

_What does that mean? What am I saying?!_

"I do not know. The rest of the memories were separated to break the symbol. We are trying to restore them, to find others that can do it." Rena said simply. She made no other motions aside from talking.

"I stand here so that I may receive both infinite justice and infinite mercy." Rena said. She wasn't talking to either the giant man that had murdered Claude or the Dark Sphere.

Looking at the horribly disfigured bodies of Claude and Allen lying on the ground, Rena knew she couldn't stay here.

_I don't understand! I have to get away! But Claude… I must be able to do something for him with my powers!_

"There's nothing that can be done to help Claude, and there is no way to run." Rena said.

"That's enough!" said the giant man, his deep voice disrupting Rena's conversation and thoughts and removing the lack of expression from his face. "That's a very interesting talk you are having, Rena." He smiled knowingly. "Perhaps we can use that. But it has to stop. I think we can leave the impression though, as a reminder to compound your pain. So, shall we continue with our normal meeting?" He turned to address the Dark Sphere, and waited for it to talk.

"Dishonour, arrogance, treason. Jie, upon my behalf, deliver the infinite justice that befits those who commit these most grievous of crimes against me" echoed the Dark Sphere, the sound of the empty voice coming from all directions.

"Your word is my honour." Jie replied.

Turing back suddenly, Jie sprang forward towards Rena, his left hand grasping outwards to her face. Rena tried to take up a fighting stance on instinct, but despaired as she suddenly realised that she couldn't remember how. And it was already too late, for Jie grasped her neck and lifted her high above the ground effortlessly. Rena brought her own hands her throat to stop Jie from being suffocating her, but she could not pry nor beat away his cold hand from her neck. She desperately tried to kick, but the size difference between them was so large that even fully extended, her kicks could not reach Jie's body. She was reduced to kicking the outstretched arm, but Jie ignored them.

_Why is this happening?!_

"It is the way things are." Rena said faintly, struggling to get the words out over Jie's grip.

_No… I've never seen this before!_

Jie hand around her neck grew tighter, making Rena's word barely audible. "I did not wasn you to experience this… Rena... but this is our memory. If you... find the rest..." In response to Rena's continued attempts at speech, Jie squeezed even more. Then he raised his open right hand grasped right around Rena's head. His palm blocked Rena's eyes, but she could still see everything that was happening. He let go with his left hand, since the grip of his right alone on the top of her head was enough to hold her helplessly high in the air.

_Anyone…_

With a malicious grin, Jie began squeeze Rena's head from all sides with his fingers. The excruciating pain began to block her thoughts and sense of anything else out, but her throat was still so sore from before she was unable to scream out anything more than a whisper. And then Rena heard a crack.

Rena's limp body fell to the ground. Looking over her with an expression of distain, Jie wiped the mess from his hand, and Rena heard distantly the voice of the Hole in the Air, Dark Sphere, make its command. The same command it always did.

"Again!"

***

Today seemed as though it was going to be nice.

Rena had always found the Shingo Forest a relaxing place for as long as she could remember. For countless summers…

* * *

**Dictionary: Warrior of Light**

A myth that has spread throughout the lands of Expel, it states that in times of crisis, a Warrior of Light will appear to save the world. This warrior could be identified by wearing strange garments of another world, with knowledge of many things that would be essential but unknown by the rest of the world. Most particularly, the Warrior would have a Sword of Light as his weapon.

Unfortunately, common descriptions of the Warrior are generally no more detailed than that. Depending on the exact locale, there are several extra details that may be present, but these are not agreed upon by everybody. Some examples of this include the Warrior having several companions, being alone, being the rivals of the Seven Devils, or the children of the Seven Devils, or even the offspring of the Gods, or just the children of common folk. Some even describe him as appearing out of thin air. Many of these ideas seem contradictory, meaning it becomes difficult to determine which were parts of the original myth and which have been added later by bards wishing to tell a good story.

This myth contains many similarities with myths present on many other planets and in many other cultures, but it has been argued that these are merely due to the atypical elements of the myth rather than any link between them.

* * *

**Author's notes:**

Not much to say. I'm almost up to uploading everything I have at this point. The end of this chapter is a bit different to the game (hoping to make things a bit interesting so you'll want to see how it all plays out), so please let me know what you think of it (and the story in general, of course!). Thanks!


	12. C2 05 Before Starting

**Author's Notes:**

Sorry this took so long. Basically, I had (and still have) computer repair problems.

* * *

**Chapter 205: Before Starting**

**SD 366-06-04**

A few of the dozens of fresh scented candles burned around Rena as she sat quietly in the front most isle of Velding Church of Arlia, still dressed in her nightgown. Rena had so far not allowed herself to remember exactly the events of the night; she had instead felt the need to come here immediately upon waking. It was still before dawn, and not even the dedicated Father Marshall would be awake yet, but the church doors didn't lock so it didn't stop Rena's wish to come here before daybreak.

Rena didn't know exactly why she wanted to be here. She felt that, should she want to, she could remember whatever dream it was that she had dreamt and its details in full, but she was also afraid to remember. She wanted to keep it out of her mind, but the more she tried to not think about her dream, the more the feelings it induced ate at her.

By being here, Rena hoped that she would be calmed out of her troubles. Rena personally found the Shingo forest more relaxing, but for some reason, she felt she should stay away from there today, and anyway it was far too dark and cold to leave the village and go into the forest at this time.

Rena had been in the church for about a fifth of the night when the first light of day began to filter though the stained glass windows. Becoming more aware of her surroundings, she could hear the distant chirps of birds and motion outside of several of the villagers preparing themselves and their tools for a day's work in the field.

And it wasn't long after that that Rena heard steps coming down the central aisle of the stone floored church.

"Rena?" asked Father Marshall when he had stepped close enough that he must have been able to identify her. "What brings you here at this time?"

"… I don't know" Rena said quietly.

"What has happened, if I may ask?" He kept his voice gentle as he spoke.

"I just had a bad dream."

"It would have to be more than a mere bad dream to drive you here before the Sun had risen."

"Perhaps. I couldn't possibly sleep again anyway."

"What was this dream about?" He was squatting now, so that his head of level with Rena's sitting position.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Are you sure? If you talk things out, it'll often help you understand them."

Rena didn't reply. Doing so would mean having to remember it.

"Well alright. I'll leave you alone with the gods then. There's no need to worry, if you are having a problem that we can't help with, than I know the gods will provide a solution." Standing up again, he walked into the back rooms and out of sight as be began his preparations for the day.

The gods seemed silent so far, but Rena hadn't felt it serious enough to explicitly ask for his advice yet. Rather she just wanted the atmosphere the church provided while she dwelled on her own thoughts.

Although Rena didn't want to think about the dream itself, she did try to think over what it meant. And what was that? She couldn't really think of anything. And did it really have to mean something? Probably not, there were quite a lot of things that meant nothing. Like everyone else, she had suffered nightmares before, and nothing became of them. Some people said that nightmares indicated that something was wrong with you, but Rena had always felt it was just an active imagination. There was no reason this should be different. The feelings she had felt during the night nagged at her, but if she let it get to her, then it would start affecting her personality. The dream had only happened once, and there didn't seem to be anything she could really do about it right now anyway.

If it happened again, she could put more effort into understanding it, but until then, it was best to treat it as an ordinary nightmare, whatever it was. She had a chance to leave the village, find out who she was, and letting a bad dream stop that would be pointless. It might be symbolic of the trouble of the journey, or perhaps she was rationalising to herself reasons to not go. But when she looked at the big picture, a dream like that should be nothing. There were thing about herself that Rena didn't understand. Numbers one and two being her origin and her powers. A dream was low on that list.

Rena had been unable to get her mother to talk about the details, but she had deduced though reasoning that her mother had found her abandoned many years ago when she was unable to remember such things. Her father, or rather, her adopted father, was still alive then, but he had died several years later. Who her real parents were, she had no idea, except for the pendent she wore constantly. And her healing powers, that didn't require a Crest? Again Rena didn't know. But if she was to leave Arlia and travel, she might learn things that she could never imagine if she stayed isolated here.

The Sun was now well into the sky at this point. Last night, her argument with her mother last night had been unsuccessful. So she would try again to convince her again. And if she couldn't… well, then she would have to leave regardless.

***

Claude guessed that it was equivalent to 9 am or so when he knocked on the door to Rena's house the next day. His limited equipment could probably tell him to a reasonable degree the rotational speed the planet he was on, and from there he would be able to determine the time more accurately, but he had used his gadgets enough yesterday, and he just wanted to ignore them.

That probably wasn't going to be possible though. If he really was going to prepare for a journey today, then he would have to again go through the routine of checking materials to see if they were safe for him, although he could hopefully have the opportunity to do it a bit more discretely today.

Standing outside the door reminded Claude of the similar situation yesterday. Several of the villagers were looking at him. The adults were trying not to be obvious about it, but they were definitely pointing their eyes his way. The young children were less inhibited, and a few pointed fingers at him while their parents tried to curb their behaviour. None came up to him however to ask him any questions.

Perhaps they had been told that they couldn't understand his speech. That might explain their reluctance to approach. But what would that mean to people like Rena, with whom it was obvious that he was conversing? Would the villagers look at her differently because of him? There was no real way to tell form here. Still, nothing Rena, Westa or Regis had said had indicated anything like that, so Claude figured he was best not worrying about it.

As he was thinking about all of this, Rena's mother Westa opened the door. She was dressed simply in a long brown dress without much embellishment and she seemed to be in a good mood judging by her smile and wide eyes.

"Ah, good morning Claude. I was hoping you would come. Do things like this happen very often to a man like you?"

_Things like being an astronaut in a tiny underdeveloped village?_ "Can't say that they do." Claude said. Uh…. Good morning Mrs. Lanford" he then hastily added to the end.

"Well, you'll be wanting to come in of course." Westa said, holding the door open and standing to the side to make room. "I know that you're already a traveller, but if you're going after this Sorcery Globe, then I suppose you'll need a few special extras, am I right?"

"I suppose so…" Claude said, not trying to sound like he was being greedy for their aid. Looking around the house, it appeared mostly the same as yesterday, expect… "Rena's not in?"

Westa gave a slight smile as Claude said that last part.

"She'll be back soon enough. I heard her get up early and head over to the church." The smile on Westa's face was replaced by one of slight confusion. "I'm not sure why exactly, quite possibly it has something to do with you and your journey. She's was really intent on going."

"But you said no?"

"I did. But that was yesterday and if she's praying for me to change my mind, she just might be in luck. I've also had a night adventure, though perhaps you already know? Anyway, I think it would be a good idea if you took Rena on your journey with you."

"Ah… you do?" Why was Westa changing her mind? As much as Claude wanted to believe it was his dashing looks and brave yet kind persona, it seemed unlikely given that they no longer considered him a hero of legend. So what was it?

"Very much so. I'm sure Rena thinks so too, but probably for a different set of reasons. She can tell you about those when she figures it out properly. But I'm sure a person with your unique qualities will be very helpful to her. I only decided to let her go this morning, so she doesn't know yet."

It would certainly be nice to have Rena along. Although it suddenly occurred to Claude that if Rena did come with him, then he would probably have to bring her home again when it was all over. Especially if they found the Sorcery Globe before whatever it was that Rena wanted to find, and it was a way off this planet. He might be forced to reveal his off-world origins if that happened. Still, even with that, Claude wanted Rena to join him. She didn't have to come with him all the way to the Globe itself if demons or other trouble was involved.

Westa starting talking again, bringing Claude out of his own thoughts. "Well, I'm sure you're just starving again, so until Rena returns so we can let her know, why don't you just make yourself at home and eat something?" Westa said.

"Uh, yeah…" Claude said, not sure how to respond to Westa's newfound enthusiasm. Also, while the food was reasonably healthy, some of it did taste pretty weird.

***

Rena mentally prepared herself as she entered her house. She had to make her point firmly, but without so much effort that the effort itself overrode the point.

"Mother. You know I love you, but I'm…"

"You should go" her mother interrupted.

"… going no matter… huh?" suddenly, Rena lost all the momentum she had built up. "Ahh… I can go… with Claude… to the Sorcery Globe?"

"That's what I said" her mother said. "You can stop standing there with a gap on your face dear, you'll embarrass yourself in front of our guest."

It was then that Rena realised that Claude was already here. He had a knowing smile on his face too, so he must have already known that her mother had changed her mind! Rena quickly recomposed herself. Whether it was her mother's own decision based on Rena's arguments yesterday, or maybe Claude's influence wasn't important. She was actually going to leave! But…

"Why did you change your mind?"

"There are many reasons. But I understand how much you want to know about your real parents, and I think you need to go on this journey, don't you?"

Claude looked slightly confused, but didn't say anything, which was okay, since Rena didn't have the listening stone in her ear now and wouldn't have understood anyway.

Her real parents? That was a topic that Rena had wanted to talk about often, but not one her mother had raised since, well, Rena couldn't remember the last time her mother had been the one to want to talk about it. Rena got the feeling that talking about it would mean admitting her mother had to share her with someone else. But wasn't that what she was doing now?

"Why now?"

"You seemed more eager than usual this time. And you'll have Claude here as a companion to travel with, which I think will help. Even if he's not a Warrior of Light."

"You're only letting me go because I'd be travelling with Claude?"

At this point, Claude suddenly began to quickly swap his attention back and forth between Rena and her mother.

"That is a major reason. Isn't that what you wanted?"

"Ah, well…" Rena stumbled. She turned her head slightly so that Claude wouldn't be able to see from his position sitting at the table. Well, it was true technically, but when her mother put it that way, it sounded like she was thinking and encouraging things that mothers weren't suppose to think or encourage regarding young men that had just been introduced a single day before. Or was that fathers? And considering she didn't have a father, wasn't her job to act as both? Her mother had never really reacted this way to any other young men that Rena had spent time with, but Claude (along with his not-Sword of Light and vague travel plans) was quite different from anyone else.

Then again, the Sorcery Globe could be dangerous, so maybe she was just talking about Claude's handiness in a situation like that. Maybe. That would make sense. Her mother's tone didn't suggest it though.

It then occurred to Rena that she was over thinking things. "Yes! Yes, it is." If she stood there forever thinking about it, it would probably just make it worse. "Right then, I have to get ready."

"And do you know what that will involve?" her mother asked. "You can't just go tramping over the country just like that."

"I will soon." Right then. Of course, Rena could admit to herself that she still had a lot to learn about this, but the ambitions Rena had to learn her origin made them seem only as trivial difficulties. Claude would know everything about how to travel already, since he was a traveller, and he could also use his weapon if they ever had trouble, and Rena knew some martial arts to boot. So until they actually got to the Sorcery Globe, there shouldn't be any trouble, and travelling around the world, Rena knew that she would finally learn enough to tell her who she was.

***

Claude spent the rest of the day running back and forth about the village as they gathered supplies. Mrs. Lanford insisted that Rena and Claude prepare everything themselves rather than ask others to do it for them, such as collecting cloths or cooking rations to eat later. Self reliance was an important skill on the road, she claimed. Although the message to prepare their own food clearly didn't apply to herself, as Westa had made time enough to generate a stack of dried biscuits in her small iron stove for them to take on the journey. Rena made a few protests that her mother was ignoring her other work and using too much of the stored grain that they had collected, but this didn't slow Mrs. Lanford at all.

Claude was starting to wonder just why Westa seemed so adamant on these things as he stood outside the river deciding if it was a good idea to wash his Federation jacket in it. If he even knew how. Claude had never had to wash his own clothes before, and the instructions written in tiny print only suggested options that required unavailable technology.

Deciding against washing it for now, Claude figured that he would just have to rough it while he was here. Maybe if he was dirty, he'd attract less attention, which could be helpful.

_Provided you aren't putting off the kinds of attention you do want._

Bah, it was all pointless anyway. If he hadn't met Rena in the forest, then he wouldn't have had to worry about any of this sort of thing. He'd just be wandering around with what he had, which would be no food and not much else. Of course, that would be easier in terms of deciding what to do, no pressure of the kind that he'd always felt he was receiving back on the Calnus. Back there, Claude felt that each decision he made would be analysed quietly by everyone else, to see just how well he matched up to his father.

Here, his problems were, strictly speaking, more difficult. Running off in search of a unidentified Globe that apparently involved demons while taking a girl who wanted to go because she wanted to find something about her real parents. A task that Claude thought to be mostly impossible on a planet like this, even if she could gain some clues using her pendent. And she had an adoptive mother who had apparently reversed her opinion on her daughter's journey in the space of a night for no discernable reason. But even so, Claude felt he preferred it here. Here, his decisions, good or bad in the end, would be made without anyone looking and criticising over his shoulder.

***

"I suggest that you first pass through Krosse, and from there go to Kurik to which you can possibly obtain passage to Ell. That's the fastest way to reach the supposed location of the Sorcery Globe, if that's where you want to go first." Regis looked thoughtful for a moment. As the elder of the village, he always tended to give speeches of good advice or something similar when he felt one of his villagers was about to do something new or unusual to them. Rena knew that he would surely have something to say to her as well, so she had decided to get the drop on him first by taking Claude and visiting him at his home rather than take the advice as she as already leaving the village gates. "Now, that reminds me, I was thinking of heading to Krosse myself soon… hmmm…" He stroked his bead passively. "I must be getting old, can't for the life of me remember why I was supposed to be going, but I was sure it was important…"

"Weren't you invited as a representative of Arlia to the Royal Wedding?" Rena asked him.

"Royal wedding?" Claude said.

"Oh, that's right!" Regis started patting down is own clothes as he searched for something. "Now, did I have it on me…? Ah!" Regis found what he was looking for, a thin slip of paper within an elegant envelope. "Ah, yes, my invitation to the wedding, between… uh..." Regis started searching his clothes again, for his glasses this time. Regis had poor eyesight, unfortunately a common effect of old age.

"Between Prince Clauzer of Krosse and Princess Rozaria of Laceur." Rena said helpfully. "Elder, I'm surprised you forgot, who else could it be?"

"I didn't know" Claude said.

"You didn't? Where exactly have you been travelling from that you could avoid such gossip?" Rena asked, mildly shocked.

"Oh, you know, far away…"

Regis ignored the unhelpfully vague comment as continued his own speech. "Yes, well, whatever be the case, at any rate I will not be going. As much as I'd like, I'm getting too old to travel so far. The kingdom will not see any offence in it if a small town such as Arlia does not have someone there standing in the cathedral, but…" Regis paused for a moment. "…I suppose since you are going that way anyway, you'd might as well take the chance." He handed the envelope to Rena, which she picked up with great reverence. "Now, don't go getting to many big ideas. It's only an admission to the cathedral during the ceremony. Don't go in expecting to meet the royal couple or other such nonsense. But it would be silly to not give you the opportunity and instead throw the invitation away for nothing."

"Ohhh… I'm getting excited already!" Rena said, feeling that she was on the verge of bouncing. "Don't you think so too Claude?"

"It certainly isn't something I was expecting" Claude replied. Well, that wasn't quite the reaction Rena was expecting. He did sound enthused, but not as much as Rena had hoped for. And why not? This was a once in a lifetime event, to see the houses of the two largest kingdoms on Expel finally be united in such an event!

"Now, now, Rena, don't get too distracted. You'll probably have to extend your stay in Krosse by a few days in order to attend, if that is not a problem, but you could leave sooner if that was your desire. No matter the case, I expect that this invitation is the only way you'll be able to get a decent hotel room right now."

"Of course we'll attend!" Rena said. Actually, although Krosse and every hotel in it would probably be packed with guests from Lacour and elsewhere, she could probably get a room anyway, as her aunt Rachel was a clerk at a moderate hotel in Krosse. Rena knew she'd find some way to put them up no matter what. But with this invitation, they could probably get an even better room. Not that any hotel room would take much to be better than Rena's bed on the floor.

"Can we even afford a hotel? Won't it be expensive during a big event like that?" Claude asked.

Well… that was probably a good point. Rena wasn't sure, she'd never been in the situation where she was the one paying. Claude wouldn't be able to talk to anyone, and apparently even though he was a traveller, he didn't have any money on him. He'd muttered once something about 'Federation Fol', but Rena had never heard of such a currency. And perhaps she never would, as Claude had quickly moved the topic at the time to something closer to home.

Rena had some money saved during her lifetime. Actually, it was a surprisingly reasonable amount considering, Regis had said, for someone of Rena's age and means. So that was what they were going to spend, and maybe that could make money on the way through other means. Claude seemed a bit uncomfortable when Rena told him they could use her savings, but he didn't have any way to counter argue, being broke and all.

"Well, we'll figure something out." Rena said. The journey was just about to begin, so she had to stay positive. She was sure Aunt Rachel could figure something out.

***

Rena had awoken at sunrise the next day in a state of half apprehension and half excitement. Together with Claude, they had planned to leave as early as possible, so that they could make it to Salva and a few towns beyond without any problems of time. And now she was at the village gates, and she still felt that way.

Claude was here still wearing the very same clothes that he had worn when they had first met. This was some sort of yellowish jacket with strange writing and markings (that he didn't seem to want to explain) and plain pants to match. Rena had previously asked him if he should get more clothes, but no-one in the village could really give anything to suit him to spare. He also had a bag of various tools, mostly basic cooking materials, although Rena hoped that they wouldn't have to use them too much. And naturally, he also had his incredible Light weapon, which he wisely kept out of sight.

Rena herself was a bit luckier on the clothing front, since she could naturally choose any of her clothes to take with her, no one else would need them. But she decided that she really only needed one extra set of clothes to add to the green dress she was now wearing, anything more would be carrying weight she didn't have to. She also had some blankets and rags that would probably be needed later if they got stuck at night outside civilisation. The food that they had was shared between both luggages.

Claude was waiting just outside the village gates, looking northward along the road that lead to Salva. On the other side of Rena, well within the village, it seemed as if half the population had turned out to see them off. Most importantly, her mother was right beside her, offering her last advice.

"Now Rena…" her mother said, as she fidgeted with Rena's clothes, trying to make them slightly straighter and neater. "I keep telling you this, but you have to understand, this isn't going to be easy." Her voice had no tone of admonishment, only concern. "But, I'm sure that no matter what happens, you'll survive it."

"Mum…"

"So don't worry too much okay? You've needed to do this for a while, I know, or maybe longer, but I was always too worried about what would happen." Her mother stopped speaking for a moment and quickly embraced her, catching Rena by half surprise. She started to speak more softly, so that only Rena would be able to hear. "Rena, I know that after you discover what you need to, you may decide that you don't want to come back here"

"Mum… you shouldn't say…"

"That's alright if you don't need to come back. But no matter what happens, I'm your mother, and if you ever want to come back here, I'll be waiting." Her mother released her tight grip around Rena's body, and stood back to look at Rena with slightly moist eyes. "I've got a good feeling about Claude alright, so you two look out for each other, and you'll be fine, alright?"

"Mum… I love you."

"I love you too, Rena. Now, you'd better be going."

Rena looked around to see that Claude, Regis and pretty much the entire village was looking at her. She'd never managed to get the entire village's attention like this before. It was a little uncomfortable and disconcerting really, and not the way that she wanted to feel as she left on her journey.

Claude came up behind her. "Anything wrong?"

"Not at all." Rena said as she faced her mother with a last wave goodbye. "Come, let's go" she said, so quiet she wasn't sure that Claude would hear it.

***

It was well past sunset, and the last light of the day was disappearing behind the smooth mountains to the west of Arlia. Despite the increasing cold, Westa Lanford continued to wait just outside the north facing gate of the village. Wrapped in several layers of woollen clothes for warmth against, she stared to the north into which Rena had walked off into.

Surely by now they had walked past Salva. It would take them four days to walk to Cross, assuming they weren't able to hitch a ride with someone riding on a wagon. If they didn't they might make it a day sooner than that. As she was thinking, she heard soft footsteps shuffle up behind her.

"Westa, what are you doing?" asked Regis as he came up to and leaned on the closed gate that separated the two.

"It's my right to worry."

"Is that necessary? He only spent a short time here, but I think we can both agree that despite his claims to not be the Warrior that we wished for, Claude seems fully capable of taking care of any problems on the journey."

"What I worry about is not something you could understand."

"Hmph. Silly woman. I am going inside, and you should too before the night air makes you ill." Regis quietly walked off again to his house on the hill, leaving Westa to wonder just what kind of girl she had been given and now sent away.

* * *

**Dictionary: Westa Lanford**

A woman of in her mid-forties, and like all Expellians, she looks slightly younger than comparative members of other humanoid species. She has blue hair and blue eyes. She was previously married, but her husband died of an expected illness and she now lives alone with her adopted daughter Rena. As with everyone who lives in Arlia, she makes the majority of her living as a farmer, most normally as a keeper in the community garden.

Westa is particularly conscious of the fact her daughter Rena is not truly hers, and is very particular on how she perceives others to interact with Rena.


	13. C2 06 A Devil of Wisdom

**Chapter 2 - 6: A Devil of Wisdom**

**SD 366-06-04**

The dinning room of Lacuer castle was a massive space filled with four long tables made of the finest wood that could be found in the land. At one end of the room was a fifth, shorter table for the royal family, so positioned such that they could view the entire hall and all its guests at once while they ate.

Leon D. S. Gehste sat at one of the long wooden tables and gazed over the royal seats and the stream of light that passed between them originating from highly fashioned windows at the back of the room. Centred was the largest seat, normally occupied by King Lacuer, to his left was the slightly smaller seat for his wife the Queen Consort, and to the King's right was a third seat, slightly smaller again but peculiarly lavish for someone that Leon never cared to remember. And arranged around those were progressively smaller seats still for further and lesser royals, but those elaborate chairs were still larger than what was really needed.

To Leon, the royal family might consider themselves the head and heart of the kingdom, and he supposed, technically, that was true. And the people of the kingdom were the body. And people like himself? The brain of course. Not in the giving order sense, but in the sense that everything else would fall apart without Leon and people like him. Hmm… maybe that was more like the skin, but considering that he was sitting with the smartest people in the kingdom, brain was better.

Those people were arranged around him now in the otherwise empty hall, talking to each other in voices that could be made just a little quieter if they had any manners. They only talked about useless things anyway while they were here, mostly the war in recent days. Except for the occasional topic about the inventions that they were developing for the battle, Leon didn't care, unlike the others, but he knew that he would always be the most unique member of the research group. At twelve years old, he was a child prodigy of two other members, making him far younger than the others. On top of that he was also a regressed fellpool, giving him distinctive feline ears on top of his head rather than round ones on the side like everyone else, and a short tail, despite the fact that neither of his parents had such features. It was an interesting mystery that even Leon didn't understand, but right now Leon wasn't concerned on such things. He'd rather be back down stairs in his lab.

"So, as I understand it, the demons have started to reshape Eluria into a singular tower, right?" Ninoa said. She was a middle-aged woman who, along with pretty much everyone from Lacuer's research department, held idle conversation while they enjoyed their lunch.

"That's what I heard" said Leon's mother in reply just before she took a bite into an apple. "It's hard to tell at this distance, but the latest reports suggest as much."

"It must be getting terrible out there for the soldiers" Leon's father added. "Still, it makes me wonder why they'd go to all the effort. Turning Eluria into a tall target doesn't make sense."

"Well, they are demons. Who can say what passes for thought inside their minds?" Tempa, a recently promoted man who despite being the newest person in the group, was still ten years older than Leon.

"It could mean we're in this for the long haul, if they're confident enough to waste their energy building that. I wonder if the general populace has heard yet?" Leon's mother said.

"I don't think so. It'll probably cause a panic when they do. Both here and in Krosse." Leon's father said, finished his wife's comment again.

"But timing wise, there are a few distractions to keep the public's mind of it at the moment, so that'll probably help" Ninoa said.

"Speaking of distractions, that reminds me." Leon's mother said. "I'm to understand that the King as requested that Professor Jean return to work here." Given the situation and the war, perhaps that was not surprising. The Professor had not worked under the research group since before Leon had joined, so Leon did not know what kind of man he was, but supposedly he was the most intelligent man the group had ever seen before Leon joined.

"He did." Eddar grumbled, clearly annoyed. Not surprising as Bowman for the former head of the research department. If he returned, then Eddar would probably be displaced as the current head. Eddar was an old man known to have invented more than his share of weapons in his time. They were all merely mundane weapons without the addition of magic that Leon could add, but it was still impressive enough for Leon to consider Eddar a man of admirable qualities. "Distractions, distractions. Everything's a distraction. Why don't they ever trust the populace with the truth? Maybe then we'd be taken seriously for once, instead of always saving inventing junk to save people behind their back." Eddar added to the end.

"Hmph. Well, for our side of the ocean, I think it's rather silly for the kingdom to still be holding its Tournament at a time like this" agreed Tempa. As Eddar's full time assistant, Tempa had a tendency to agree with his mentor. "The resources could be better used here, or a least at the front lines."

"Come on, that's a bit much. The Tournament would be quite useful when you think about it, seeing as it promotes good fighters, just what we need right now" Ninoa said.

"All soldiers are the same!" Leon interrupted. "They should be giving the money to us for better equipment! A million knights could never help as much as our inventions would!"

"Now, now Leon. Everyone has a part to play, you shouldn't flippantly insult those that risk their lives" his mother said to him.

The others seated at the table seemed more content to ignore the twelve year old genius' social commentary. Leon decided that since they didn't care for his opinion, he might as well not be there. "Mama, I'm going back to my room in the lab."

"You haven't eaten enough yet. If you don't eat the right, you won't get strong" Leon's mother said, making a blindingly obvious comment.

"I'm well aware of my dietary needs." Leon said, crossing his arms to show he was confident.

"You can go if you promise to finish your sandwich once you're down there."

Well, the sandwich was filled lettuce and some other pointless vegetable making it rather unappealing, but if he was looking over his plans for a new wind crest catapult design while he was eating, he could probably ignore it. "Okay, Mama." Without giving anyone the chance to further comment, Leon jumped from his chair and made is way downstairs.

***

Leon's private lab was underneath the castle, and a few small windows at the top of the room were ground level on the outside to provide a natural light source. The lab itself was crammed full of half-made inventions and prototypes. Clearing a little space away from his crowded wooden desk by first pushing the rough carved models of un-flyable contraptions out of the way and then dusting the remaining charcoal and papers off, Leon placed is small sandwich on the table in a space that looked reasonable clean. He then sat down, facing away from the lab entrance.

"I hope you have some salt on that, because the Devil is behind you" came a female voice from approximately the lab door.

Leon turned around in shock to face… something. It was very strange. There was nothing that Leon could see, but he knew that right behind him, there was a person. A female person, but anything beyond gender he couldn't tell. And although the voice he had just heard was female, he somehow he knew the person was female for entirely different reasons. He just sensed it.

"S-Stand back!" Leon shouted. "I know a-a h-hundred different magic crests that would s-s-split stone in half!" Perfectly true, a crest such as _Black Sabre_ with enough mental power channelled into it should theoretically cut diamond or even harder materials, should such a thing exist. But for a ghost who wasn't made of anything? Leon considered calling for help, but with his lab so far out of the way from the castle in general, and everyone else from the group still upstairs at lunch, would anyone hear him?

"You're so cute when you're scared but don't want to admit it. Anyway, don't bother with any of your symbol magic, I'm in enough pieces as it is." She sounded kind of tame for a ghost that had just appeared. Not very threatening at all. But Leon didn't want to let his guard down, it could be a trick. Leon considered himself too smart to fall for such a thing. The ghost continued speaking "I think you should be glad for us to meet this way. My friend introduced herself to a group of fellpools by scaring them off a cliff."

The ghost started to move around the room. Leon felt that he could very erringly know where the ghost was at all times, despite the fact he knew that she was completely invisible. The ghost stopped at a rough model bird that Leon had placed against the wall and apparently began to study it intensely.

"Hey, don't touch that! It's very delicate!" Leon's plans for that wooden model were to use air crests under the wings to make it fly. When it worked, as surely one day it would, it would allow larger models to carry people about without any of the problems associated with using animals.

"Even the mundane wings of this model are much like crests, when you think about it" she said. Leon disagreed in his mind, but didn't have a chance to think about it further as the ghost continued. "It doesn't fly, and I've nothing to touch it with" the ghost said plainly, now answering Leon's earlier comment. Leon got the impression that the ghost was moving her arm through the wooden wings that were as wide as Leon was tall, but there was no effect or motion in the model. Leon knew stories that ghosts could pass though walls, so presumably they could also pass through other things. But was she actually a ghost?

"So, you're dead then?"

"Err…" The ghost seemed hesitant. "Well, I 'died', and that's sort of the same thing. But we don't tend to stay dead very easily, it seems."

"Who are you…?" Leon found himself shuffled backwards and around the room so that the table was between them, and nearly tripped on his overly long lab coat in the process. The invisible ghost seemed to be facing him now, but it hadn't moved away from the model.

"Didn't I just say? I'm what you know as the Devil. Well, one of them. The Red one if you want to be precise, which I'm sure Leon D. S. Gehste would." She sounded as if she was very slightly annoyed, but mostly found the situation funny.

"T-There's no such thing!" Of course, there were no such things as ghosts either, but here she was. Leon had heard of demons, they were attacking the continent of Ell even as they spoke. Devils were supposed to be a class above demons, and they weren't supposed to exist, even demons claimed so. But demons had a penchant for lying, and many people had been recently forced to take back their claims that demons did not exist. On the other hand, demons made no claims about ghosts, for or against.

"Don't say that! Belief in abstract and imaginary things is the only thing that makes them real!" Well, that was a silly and contradictory statement. Leon then thought about it more deeply for a moment in case there was more meaning to it, before deciding it was still a silly and contradictory statement. Then again, the Devil claimed to be red while it was invisible, so contradictions were obviously not a stranger to her. Maybe she had something wrong in her head? If Hell existed, it could probably do that.

"Why are you here?!" Leon asked.

"I'm a big fan of your work and studies" the ghost… Devil said.

"You… are?" Well, that was a little bit surprising. Leon was an expert in the study of crests, and even more so their application to mechanical devices. He was the only one in the castle, no the world, that could combine steel and wood with crests to any significant degree above simple wands. Yet, would someone from Daemonium really have heard about Leon's efforts? Leon knew he was good, but he wasn't sure his reputation would extend that far. Assuming he even wanted his reputation to extend that far.

"Yes, I really liked the modifications you made to the Aquarian Thunder Arrow," the Devil continued "allowing it run employ the power of a quadratic key as an energy magnification device in order to create the Lacuer Hope."

Leon didn't think it was possible for the woman to make even less sense than she did before, but he was proven wrong again.

"If you really were a big fan of mine, you'd know I've never invented any of that stuff. Not that I couldn't, mind you. Though, really, what the heck are those things?"

"Oh, you haven't invented it yet. But after I impart some of my wisdom onto you, I think you could do it! Actually, the Aquarian Thunder Arrow whose design you base the Lacuer Hope upon itself hasn't been invented yet and won't be for another 400 years, but I'd better give you the plans now so you can get started on improving it. Your table is incredibly messy, but here you go. It should be just what Dion deserves, really."

Was that an insult? Everyone knew that the messiest people were the smartest, and that their workspaces full of things reflected minds full of ideas! Leon looked at his table, and saw that his sandwich was now covered in several heavy sheets of white paper that seemed, well, glossy, although Leon had never heard of paper being shiny before.

"What is this?!"

"I just told you. For a genius, you sure aren't that smart."

"Hey! You dare speak to the great Leon D. S. Gehste that way?! I'll have you know that I'm the youngest ever royal researcher to achieve the title of royal researcher!" And it was a very difficult task too, but that should have been obvious, Leon thought smugly.

"Your language skills are almost a match for your crests. And while that tone is so cute," The Devil's voice was until now light-hearted, but suddenly became very serious mid sentence "you'll need this weapon soon. After finishing Ell, the demons are going to attack here, and with power that neither you nor anyone else of this world has ever seen before. If you want to win, you'll definitely need this."

"Aren't you a devil? Wouldn't you want them to win?"

"I'm a devil, not a demon. There's an important difference." As she said this, she began to move around the table, and Leon countered her movement circling until he stopped right were he had started, at his seat.

"Which is?"

"The name, obviously." Her voice raised a tone and was back to being light-hearted.

"That's… illogical."

Since they were right in front of him, Leon picked up the plans that had appeared and looked over them. There were actually two separate pages of plans. The first set of plans, with precise measurements and diagrams carefully drawn in brown ink, demonstrated some sort of mobile cannon that used crests to create a large ball of electrical energy. Named the Thunder Arrow, it was a very clever device. Overwritten on it was red ink that apparently translated the words into a few other languages, including Leon's native Basic Expellian.

But the second set of plans for the Lacuer Hope, drawn without any sort of ruler and in rather messy red ink, was far more advanced, despite the poor presentation. It was more of a conceptual page, with rough diagrams describing how the previous Thunder Arrow and its architecture could be altered. When he looked at this page, Leon could instantly see how the Thunder Arrow was in ways quite limited in its application. The Thunder Arrow only stored and propelled lightning, and its main body was really nothing more than a big barrel for aiming. But this second set of plans… they suggested an outline of how the body could be shaped into a solid crest in and of itself, which would magnify the effect thousands of times over. After Leon had his way, this Lacuer Hope would be a true act of genius.

Leon nearly found himself having to wipe his mouth at the thought. But as he glanced over the materials that would be required to build such a weapon, he noticed that this weapon would require a keystone crest, a separate crest that would form part of and complete the weapon as a crest in its entirety. And that meant he would have to make a journey he didn't really want to.

"I don't have a quadratic key, or energy stone, or whatever you want to call it." Leon objected. "You expect me to head over to Hoffman Island to get it?" That would be an annoying task. Leon would certainly have to go there himself to be sure that an energy stones they collected would be compatible and of adequate quality. But the ruin they were known to be in was considered a death-trap older than any history of Expel. Leon wasn't afraid, since of course he never was, but maybe someone else should clean up the ruins remarkably persistent defences before a scientist like himself entered.

"Don't worry about that, someone's just left right now on a journey to bring you one. It's not her intention, but a nice powerful Energy Stone will get here in time."

"You're sending someone here with an energy stone?"

"No-one is sending her. No decision has even been made. But the stone she has will be here. You needn't worry your cute little cat-ears, I usually find fate to be reliable when it's important." That last sentence spoken by the Devil was slightly strange. Destiny shouldn't be anthropomorphised like that, it was quite useless and self-deceiving in Leon's opinion.

"Sounds to me like you're just hoping for luck!" Leon said.

"Also, I want you to help me with something." The Devil seemed to lean in close as she said this in a quiet voice.

"Why are you suddenly whispering?" Leon asked.

"I suppose it doesn't make sense, you're the only one who should be able to hear anyway, but I need you to create a special crest for me."

Leon was about to object with 'why should I do that' but what came out of his mouth was "what kind of crest?"

"You know of the crest for black and the crest for white?"

"You mean the base elements associated with darkness and light? Of course I do."

"Not really. I mean the colours, not the elements. Black can be understood as the crest that represents absorption of everything, and White the source that emits everything. What I want is a hole that emits everything. Does that make sense? Combine Black and White to make a crest that means both."

"That's impossible, it's obviously a contradiction of terms."

"Impossible? That's why I am asking you" she said as she stopped leaning towards Leon.

"Heh." This Devil wasn't that dumb, of course Leon was the person to ask! She clearly wasn't lacking in technical or conceptual knowledge. Leon would be hard pressed to find more than ten people in the whole who would understand what this invisible ghost was saying.

"Why do you want such a crest?" Leon asked.

"So we can escape from Hell. We've been stuck there since the beginning of time. It might help."

"It might help? Seems to me you don't need help."

"Unlike the Energy Stone matter, I can't really know if knowledge of the White Hole Crest will actually work. But I have to try. I know what I ask is difficult. Maybe start with just a Black Hole Crest before you try to create a White Hole one. Also, I really should leave now, else I'm liable to the smelt, and you don't want that. You are pretty cute though. Also, say hi to Sophia for me when you meet her."

"Who?" Why was this devil leaving so suddenly?

"I'm just interested to see what happens. Like myself, she's also a big fan of your work, so I hope you'll like her."

"It that right? A friend of yours?"

"I wouldn't say that, she doesn't know I exist. Well, don't let your head get too big by the next time I see you, alright? Goodbye." And with that Leon knew that the presence of the invisible Devil was gone. The room didn't look any different, aside from the paper plans, but Leon knew he was once again alone in his dusty lab.

It was only after the Devil had disappeared that Leon realised that partway through the conversation, he had stopped being frightened of the supernatural being. But then, he was cool under pressure, so that was alright. Even a Devil from the beginning of time wouldn't faze him!

Leon looked back over the very real designs that he held in his hands. Who had drawn these? The words on the first, neater, set of plans appeared to be written into three sets, the first in some language that he didn't understand, but the letters appeared to be very elegant. The second language, written under the first, was another he didn't understand, but the lettering in this one was much more constricted and simple. The third writing, placed under that was familiar to him, as it was written in Basic Expellian, the only language that Leon knew and he thought worth learning. Exotic languages and poetry could be left to the useless bards in Linga. But at least it told him something about the author's names. Not that those names meant anything to Leon, but he thought it might be interesting to meet these people 'Elena' and 'Dion'.

But that was for another time. Leon decided to skip the remainder of his lunch and concentrate on his new plans and ideas. When he was done, there wouldn't be a demon left in the world that wasn't in awe of his genius.

* * *

**Dictionary: Lacuer Research Group**

A group that works in Lacuer castle and is funded directly by the kingdom of Lacuer, advancing the technology of the state. They are considered the brightest minds on Expel with regards to science, although such a claim is not uncontested. They often come into disagreements with pure crest research groups (both in and out of Lacuer), over the merits of a scientific approach versus crest research. They are also the only known group on Expel to attempt merging crests with technology.

Members of the group include Leon D. S. Gehste, a child prodigy to two other members. The current head of the group is Eddar Waswick, who took over from when the previous head Bowman Jean 'retired'.

Most recently, with the demonic invasion of the continent of Ell, the King of Lacuer has had the Research Group focus it efforts primarily on weapons development, which sounds a bit like another research group when you think about it.


	14. C2 07 A Third Point of View

**Chapter 2-7: A Third Point of View**

**SD366-06-05**

Allen looked through his window, hiding himself as much as he could behind the red velvet curtains. From his vantage point on the second floor of his father's mansion, which overlooked the central square of Salva, he could witness the comings and goings of the people. The majority of them were miners or their families, and where Allen to take to the streets, he could expect a warm reception from many of them. News of his disgraceful actions in the Shingo Forest had not seemed to spread here, and maybe they never would.

But Allen had refused to leave the house and instructed the staff to remain silent on the topic of his return. Of Krosse, that would not prevent the township from learning that he was back for very long, but he did it anyway. Everyone in town knew of him and his recruitment into the army, many young men of the town had done the same. As the son of the mayor and mine owner, this presence in the recruitment was well publicised. Now that he was back, alone, he wondered if he could go out again… what would they think, seeing him the only one to return? They would ask all sorts of questions that he couldn't answer.

Up here, it was unlikely that any would see him normally. Especially as the majority of the town had not learned of his returned just yet and would not look in his direction. But there were an abnormally large number of travellers of late, and there was one whom he feared who knew where to look, to look right at him. And for some reason, she happened to be in town right now. It was Rena he was hiding from.

He had gone over the situation a thousand times in his mind, and each time he did so, he realised more and more what a terrible and inexcusable thing he had done. He could barely believe that at first, he had thought the situation was back to normal between them, regardless of how Rena might well hide her tension.

The young woman with blue hair had not shown any indication that she had noted his appearance in his window, or indeed any indication that anything was wrong at all. But there was clearly something going on. She was carrying a lot of supplies, far more than would be expected if she was merely here on a one or two-day trip. And most obviously, that young man that Allen had encountered in the forest, who knew about the demonic stone, who saved him from it, had saved Rena from Allen and had wielded the Weapon of Light, was with her. Claude.

Why were they both here?

Allen's first thoughts were that they had come to see him? Could that be true? But why would they do that? It would explain why they were travelling together. After what had happened, Allen could not bear to face Rena, but if she approached first, and claimed she accepted the apology that Allen wanted to give but could not bring up the courage to do so, then…

No, that wasn't it. She wouldn't do that. After what had transpired, she could only be here to demand the apology, to lay the blame at his hands that...

But, that wasn't like Rena at all. She wouldn't blame him, and even if she thought Allen deserved it, which she wouldn't, she still wouldn't actually speak it.

She hadn't blamed Dias for his leaving, had she?

It suddenly struck him that the similarity between his situation and Dias. A long time ago, there were four of them, practically inseparable, but now, all of them were alone. Except, unlike Dias or himself, it looked as if perhaps Rena would not be alone again for much longer.

_Did I end up like Dias? No. Dias was not at fault for why he left. I can blame only myself._

It was his fault that he was in this situation. But his self-imposed exile was the same as the one Dias had found himself in. How was he to extract himself from it?

In the end, Allen couldn't do anything but hide.

***

In the smoky haze that passed for air, Claude quietly surveyed his surroundings. He was seated at a simple wooden table tucked into the corner of the 'The Seven Dwarfs', one of the many taverns of Salva. Across from him sat Rena, who was picking at the food they had ordered for their lunch. And around them both were dozens of miners, who walked in and out for their meal break, presumably. Rena had claimed before they came here that Salva was one of the largest mining towns in the country, and the heavily-built workers who bellowed greetings to every new man to walk in the door matched Claude's preconceptions of a close-knit community. Claude had felt very nervous when he had first entered, and more than a few looked at the two of them strangely for a moment, but they had grabbed a table without trouble and now everything seemed as though it was fine. Claude still didn't make eye contact with anyone though.

They weren't alone in standing out, which ironically made it easier to blend in. There were a few other people who clearly weren't locals around. "They're all heading to Krosse, like us" Rena had said. "Probably to attend the Royal Wedding."

"Say, Allen lives here right?"

"He does. That large mansion on the east side of the town is his father's. I'm sure you would have seen it earlier."

"We haven't seen him since the time we first met. Did you think that perhaps we should see him today?"

"We probably should. We don't really have that much time if we wish to make it to Krosse by nightfall, but after what happened, a nice normal visit sounds… errr… nice."

Claude did not expect there would be any lasting side-effects of the stone's influence on Allen, but he could check just to be sure. And there was no telling what Claude would face ahead, so getting as much normality as possible in before that sounded like a good thing.

***

As the two young off-worlders paid for their meal at the bar counter, the man seated at the table behind them carefully eyed them. Were they going to leave right away for Krosse? Quite possibly. But what were they doing here in the first place? Neither of them belonged here obviously, but the young woman's origin was unknown to him. During his journeys he'd never seen her species on this planet before, which made it a mystery as to why she spoke the language of Expel as a native as well as dressed the part, while her boyfriend spoke in Terran and made no real attempt to hide his origin while wearing that jacket.

Regardless of their purpose here, the fact that they came here meant they must have a way to leave as well. Ernest Raviede decided instantly to follow them, chuckling to himself quietly. Hopefully he wouldn't end up ruining whatever sort of holiday they were having on this underdeveloped planet.

***

Rena knocked on the large thick door of the mansion that Allen lived in. It was not long before the butler opened it. He looked mildly surprised to see them.

"Ah, good afternoon." Rena said. "Would Allen be available?"

"Ahh… let me check for you." Somewhat unusually, he didn't invite Rena or Claude to wait inside, so the two of them just stood there while the butler disappeared upstairs. While they were standing there, Rena could see a portion of the mansion's entrance, and it was still much the same as she remembered. Extremely well maintained and with minimal dust, not an easy task in a town situated next to a mine. The rest of the house would probably be much the same.

It was not long before he returned. "I'm afraid the young master seems to be out."

"Really? Oh, well. Could you let him know we were here?"

"That won't be a problem, I'm sure."

"Does he even know who I am?" asked Claude after the front door had closed behind them. "How's he supposed to let Allen know I was here?"

"More than once he's forgotten to tell Allen about my visits, and I've been coming to this house for years." Well, maybe. Rena had always found the Tucks's butler to be a nice, but forgetful man. Still, there wasn't anything that could really be done about it. "Allen will probably be able to figure out who you are from a description." Claude did wear some odd things, so that wouldn't be a problem.

As they were leaving the grounds, Rena glanced up at the window to Allen's room. Just for a moment, she thought she saw a movement, but she couldn't be sure.

"Rena, what are you looking at?"

"Oh, nothing I guess."

***

Rena had judged the wagon they were to ride to be fairly inexpensive, and she soon found out why. The wagon that they had managed to catch a ride in was fairly large, but Rena found herself with barely anywhere to sit as it was so crowded with both people and their things. She could probably stand, if only just, but the cloth roof was too low for anyone taller to do the same, and Rena didn't want to be the only one standing. And she'd probably fall over at the first bump in the road anyway.

Rena squeezed herself onto the wooden floor between Claude and a young blond woman in a wide blue dress, which incited a protest from the later. "Hey! Watch yourself! You nearly sat on my lunch!" the woman said, now forced to carry a large cloth bag on her lap.

"Sorry." But that was all Rena was going to say. She obviously didn't mean to sit on it, and just saying 'please be careful' would have been warning enough, so why was this woman so angry? Some people could be so rude.

Just as the Rena felt the wagon starting to move, one final man who looked to be about thirty jumped into the wagon, and deftly held on to the side to avoid falling. His long coat, shoulder length blond hair and the loose ends of his large bandana lifting slightly behind him in the wind as he did so. Looking around the wagon, he seemed to lock his eyes onto Claude and Rena for a moment before sitting very purposely next to Claude. Rena was sure that Claude also noticed this, but he didn't say anything. Perhaps he was trying to pretend he belonged with them, and thus didn't need to pay himself. Rena wasn't sure if she could agree with being used that way.

They hadn't been travelling long before the various passengers began chatting to each other. The wagon was filled with two separate families with children as well as a few loners like the two that surrounded Rena and Claude. It was clear that most of them were heading towards Krosse for the same purpose, to see the royal wedding, with most of the talk on the preparations and the party that the Kingdom of Krosse must be setting up. Rena also noted that there was nothing spoken on the individuals getting married. Possibly a sign that these people were more concerned with events that actually affected them, she supposed, but it seemed somehow rude to attend a wedding if you didn't actually show interest in the bride and groom.

This was interspaced with talk about the demonic invasion. Most people on the wagon didn't seem to take the threat very seriously. Ell was a long way from here and with every demonic attempt in the past had been decisive failure, the general opinion was that this attempt sounded as if it were stronger, but still not enough. But when Rena looked back at Allen, and the presence of the Sorcery Globe in this case, she wondered if was going to be so clear cut this time.

"So I take it the two of you are not from around here" the man seated to the left of Claude said in a deep voice, apparently referring to Claude and herself. "What brings you out here?" Claude didn't say anything in reply, as they had agreed earlier that Rena would do all the talking to others. Without giving everyone a translator, there really wasn't any other option.

"My friend isn't" Rena said. "But he doesn't talk much."

"Is that so? I was interesting in playing a game with him. I call it 'Say "what" if you understand Terran'."

"What?!" Claude suddenly exclaimed, suddenly causing the rest of the wagon to go quiet except for the sound of the metal-rimmed wheels on the dirt road.

"It's not like anyone else here can understand us. So I'd be very interested to learn where you obtained a jacket marked with the Federation insignia."

Rena gazed around the wagon at the people who were staring at them. They hadn't even managed to go a single day without drawing attention to themselves by speaking unknown languages. The girl next to her stopped eating to give a funny smirk on her face framed with a pair of blond ringlets, everyone one else just looked at them for a moment. But it wasn't long before they decided that it was none of their business and went back to their own conversations. And rightly so.

Still… "what is the Federation?" Rena whispered to Claude. Everyone else may not understand Claude or this new man, but they would still understand her.

"You… really are from around here?" The man said to her, the eyes under his bandana studying her intensely.

"Of course I am."

"It's just… heh, that means… boy." The man was now speaking to Claude. "I hope you aren't trying what I think you're trying. The UP3 is supposed to stop people like you from making a big scene on impressionable locals."

"Hey now! I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm just… travelling."

The man looked over Claude for a moment. "Forgive me. It appears we have got off on the wrong foot. My name is Doctor Raviede. But you can just call me Ernest."

"Claude."

The two of them then shook hands, and afterwards Ernest offered his hand out Rena as well. Rena stared at the hand for a moment in indecision.

"Rena, is something wrong?" Claude asked. Both he and Ernest were looking at her with puzzled expressions. And Rena couldn't see, but she thought she heard the woman beside her snicker.

Rena couldn't quite figure out how she was supposed to react. It was considered bad manners for men to offer to shake hands with women, wasn't it? But if they did anyway? And even though that was what she thought she had been taught, she had at the back of her mind, as if from a long time ago that she couldn't quite remember, the opposing idea that it would be offensive if he didn't offer, so Rena just looked at Ernest's hand while the two ideas turned over each other in her mind.

Ernest seemed about to give up and withdraw his hand, so Rena, not willing to give up her first impression, hastily grabbed his arm with both hands while putting on a larger-than-needed smile. And she ignored another lot of stares that everyone else in the caravan gave her. "Rena" she stated.

After the shaking of hands was done, Claude seemed much more willing to talk to the newcomer. "So, what made you decide- Wait, do you have a ship?! That works?" Claude asked, suddenly excited. Why Claude thought Ernest might own a large boat was something that Rena didn't understand.

"Oh dear. That was the question I really wanted to ask you." Ernest finishing his words with a quiet laugh. "It appears we are both in the same situation. I had very much hoped that you would have a ship I could hitch a ride in."

"Haha, that is kinda ironic. And a little sad."

"So, how long have you been here? I crashed here about three months ago, and have been wandering the land since then. Just me, so I've avoided talking to others as much as I could. I figure that I'll be rescued eventually, even if it means Opera has to do it herself. In the meantime, I'm taking the opportunity to look around the various ruins of this planet. I must say, they are extremely fascinating, and a few are in an almost impossibly well-maintained condition."

"I've only been here for three days." Claude said. "It was an accident with some unknown transporter, so I appeared in a forest just like that." Claude snapped his fingers at the end to emphasise the point. "It was ess-dee-three-six-six-zero-six-zero-three-something-in-the-afternoon."

Ernest quickly looked at a funny watch on his wrist. It must be a fancy new model to wear it like that instead of on a chain. "That matches my time, so it sounds like it was instantaneous."

"Well, that's something at least. I'd hate to have been shifted three hundred or three billion years in the process when I reappeared."

"What makes you think that would have happened?"

"Nothing. But it just struck me as something. Travel through space, why not travel through time as well?"

At this point, the inevitable happened. One of the other people in the wagon interrupted the conversation. A small boy, too young to have a curiosity tempered by manners, asked Claude and Ernest a question.

"Hey mister, what's that funny thing you are speaking?"

And of course, it was up to Rena to answer for them, since anything Claude or Ernest said would be incomprehensible to them.

"Little one, they're just speaking that way because they don't know any other way."

"Oh, but you know do you miss? You understand them?"

"Sometimes. Like, right now, I don't understand them at all." And it wasn't because of the listening stone. The boy obviously wasn't completely finished, but as Rena had claimed she couldn't help him, his mother took the clue and hushed any further questions.

Of course, this distraction didn't stop the boys from their own conversation. "Say, did you come out in some sort of ruin?" asked Ernest, going back to his original line of questioning to Claude.

"No ruin in the forest, it was just an ordinary forest, to the south of here."

"Ah. I heard stories that there was something down there, but I couldn't find anything. But ruins tend to fall into, well, ruin, so I guess that's it. Too bad it's not like the others and in good condition. But after a few thousand years in the elements, even the stones may be gone. What a shame." Ernest said, sounding genuinely disappointed.

That was the first time Claude had mentioned that he had come from the forest, but Rena wasn't quite sure what he meant. He sounded like he was saying he came out of thin air, which was obviously impossible, but Rena decided that she would ask him later. Ernest warranted investigation.

"So Ernest, where are you from?"

"Tetragenesis. I doubt you've heard of it."

That name sounded like something a child would invent. "Can't say I have."

"Oh! That's why you have the bandana!" Claude said, as if it was significant somehow.

"I didn't want to scare anyone as I roamed around."

"Pretty sneaky!" Claude said with a big grin. "Hey Rena, do you think I should get one too?"

_It's a bandana, what's so damn scary or sneaky about a strip of cloth?! And why's Claude acting as if seeing the obvious is such a revelation?! Are they in some sort of secret club or something?!_

"It's helped a bit when I was in Krosse and other places" Ernest said.

Claude turned his attention back to the newcomer. "You've already been to Krosse?"

"Enough to work my way around. I can show you-"

"I know my way around Krosse!" Rena suddenly exclaimed to the shocked silence of everyone else in the wagon. Except for that rude girl sitting next to her, she seemed barely able to contain her laughter.

***

It was very late when the wagon finally arrived in Krosse. The Sun had already set meaning the primary source of light was now the irregular lanterns spread throughout the city. But although dark, the city was far from muted as Claude could easily tell that there were several taverns pulling a decent crowd. Here and there, the occasional small groups of people walked the stone streets to wherever they might want to go at this hour.

As soon as they had alighted their wagon along with everyone else who had hired a ride, Claude and Rena said goodbye to Ernest. He quickly hurried off, but not before asking to meet them again tomorrow in the town square, next to the clockwork timepiece, around noon. He claimed had supposedly already arranged his own accommodations for the night, although Claude didn't see how that was possible considering his previous claims of not speaking to Expellians unless absolutely necessary. Claude instantly agreed to the meeting, of Krosse, as Ernest was really the only person who could understand his situation.

Rena seemed eager to take charge of the situation as soon as Ernest disappeared. "Okay Claude, I'll show you to the inn where my aunt works." Rena said, and without really waiting she immediately started off down a wide stone cobbled street.

Claude tried to memorise the appearance of the city as they went. Ideally, he would never be here and lost without Rena as a guide, but lessons in the military and elsewhere had ingrained in him the idea that one should try to become as familiar with one's surroundings as quickly as possible. The architecture of Krosse was primarily blue-tinted grey stone, and the storefronts they past all had various markings to indicated their business. Even though he couldn't read them, Claude was able to deduce the purpose of several of them such as bakeries and dressmakers by the pictures on their signs, even in the poorly light night-time streets. In addition, a few here and there seemed to have extra decorations on them such as colourful wreaths, all of them cheaply made by Claude's standards, but probably the best that the people of this planet could achieve.

As they were walking, Rena raised the questions that Claude had been expecting. "So, what was all that stuff you were talking about with Ernest? Tetragenesis? And what's the Federation? And time travel you said was possible? And…" At this point, Claude started losing track of everything.

_Oh geez, what am I going to say?_

"Ah, well, Tetragenesis is a 'country' far away, and it is part of the Federation, which is a group of countries that work together." _That was reasonably true._

"And time travel?"

Claude felt he could answer this one a bit more confidently, even though it would be much harder to believe. "That's something neither of us has ever done, though my parents have done it. You can think of it like going to sleep, and waking up the day before, or a thousand days later."

"What?! That's the silliest thing I ever heard!"

"Yes, well, it needs magic." People think that magic can do anything, especially if they didn't understand it. Still, to prevent any more questions, Claude decided he would start asking something. "Anyway, how much further to this place you know?"

It wasn't that long before they arrived at a two story building. "Kingdom Hotel" Rena proclaimed. "Hope my aunt is working tonight. Just ignore the sign for now" Rena gestured to a wooden billboard next to the main entrance with red writing on it, but Claude didn't really have any choice but to ignore it anyway.

The wide double doors of the hotel were unlocked, and Claude found the long rectangular lobby to be reasonably well maintained and decorated with wide landscape paintings that didn't look that expensive. Large sets of windows surrounded the door they had just passed on both sides and gave a good view of everything outside, and above them, a low hung array of candles provided lighting. The air in here was very slightly smoky, but there was no one around that Claude could see. But there must be someone, you wouldn't leave a door in a city like this unlocked otherwise. And from behind the walls on both sides came the sounds that suggested a well-packed hotel.

Rena immediately stepped up to the counter and pulled a rope hanging from the ceiling in front of the main desk. While they were waiting, Rena peaked over the counter, but didn't seem to find anything interesting among the papers.

A middle-aged lady in slightly dirty white dress and dirtier white apron soon emerged out from one the back rooms carrying a broom. "Rena?!" she said as she put aside her broom and quickly moved outside the counter.

"Hello Aunt Rachel. Nice to know you still remember me."

The two women gave each other a warm hug, and Claude felt as an awkward extra to the conversation. "Of Krosse I remember you. You haven't changed a bit since I last saw you."

"Well, I think I must have changed a little bit." Rena said, using showing a small space between her right thumb and index finger in front of her.

"Oh, and you've got a boyfriend now, isn't he cute?" Rachel said in a very high tone of voice as she gave Claude a good look over.

"He's not my boyfriend. We're just travelling together."

Claude put on a big smile and waved in a slightly exaggerated manner. Seeing this Rachel leaned over a whispered something to Rena that Claude couldn't hear. Rena responded at a normal volume. "No, no, there's nothing wrong with him. He's just the quiet type."

"I see. Knowing how to be a good listener is important in a relation–"

"I said he is not my boyfriend" Rena interrupted.

"Whatever you say" Rachel replied, clearly indicating that she didn't believe it.

While Rena said was certainly true, the way she said it… "You don't have to sound so certain." Claude sighed quietly to himself.

Rena turned her head. "Did you say something Claude?"

"Nothing" Claude replied before realising it probably sounded like gibberish to Rena's aunt.

"Huh?" Rachel said. "What was that?"

Rena began to pull Regis' letter from a waist pouch. "Ah, never mind. Aunt Rachel, we were hoping that you could lend us a room. I have here an invitation to Damor's Cathedral as an acting representative of Arlia. So that entitles us to discounted accommodation."

"You got that?!"

"It was meant for Regis, but he said that since we were coming this way anyway, and he wasn't, we could take his place."

"Well, it's true that the palace would subsidise your stay until the wedding, but it's a matter of no rooms. The place is bursting at the seams."

As if her words had command over the world, a trio of well-dressed young men entered the hotel. They apparently had already acquired rooms, for they didn't say anything to Rachel, but walked straight past Claude and into the hallway that lead to the guest rooms. One staggered as if he wasn't quite sober, aided at times by the other two despite his protestations of being 'validly upright'. One of the sober one's made a funny look at Claude as he went past, which Claude didn't know what to make of.

"I see…" Claude muttered to himself. Perhaps people weren't as friendly in the city? That would match the stereotypes associated with Earth.

"Denny!" Rachel called out to some unseen figure. "I'm just going upstairs for a moment. Just so you know if any other patrons come in, okay?!"

There was an unintelligible grunt in reply, which seemed to satisfy Rachel. Picking up a lantern, Rachel began to walk out of the hotel lobby and into a hallway. Claude followed behind.

They went up some really noisy wooden stairs to the second floor, during which Claude could hear the muffled sounds of other guests in other rooms. The hotel certainly wasn't lacking patronage, which probably meant that it was a relatively quality hotel, for what this planet was capable of. But it certainly wouldn't have passed the health, fire or structural safety standards of home.

As they walked to the upstairs room, Rena and her aunt continued to talk and catch up.

"Now Rena, that reminds me. Just the other day, young Master Flac was here, in the very same room I'm leading you to. He didn't mind the lack of facilities at all."

"He was?! Where is he now?" Why did Rena sound so energetic now?

"Didn't say."

"Sounds like him."

The group of three stopped in a narrow hallway that looked like it wasn't meant for guests. Rachel opened an unremarkable wooden door to show her guests the room.

"Here it is" Rachel said. It wasn't a hotel room at all. Inside the large but cramped room were several bare beds stacked against the right-hand wall, a single dirty window to providing a poor source of natural light, and the opposite wall was shelved with buckets, bed warmers, folded blankets and various other small items. Claude had to admit that it didn't seem that great, but he was unsure of just much he could really expect here.

"As you can see, this is a storage room. You can sleep on one of the spare beds if you like, but you'll have to prepare them yourselves. Also, don't use the third bed from the right, it's a bit wonky. And don't go using up all the candlesticks, they're meant for the guests that pay full price."

"It's okay. I saw the sign outside. There must be a lot of people coming to Krosse because of the wedding."

"You don't have to stay here if you don't want to just because I work here. I'm sure that letter will grant you a place at one of the hotels of the Inner City. They're bound to have space."

"No, no. It's perfectly fine. I must admit that a nice hotel is enticing, but before we left Claude made the good point that we shouldn't spend our money recklessly. Just because Regis gave me this letter doesn't mean we can afford the money needed for the kind of hotel that would accept them. Our journey could be quite long, so best to save it for now when we can."

Rachel pulled a pair of short fat candles off the shelf and lit them. They emitted a very faint smelt of something pleasant that Claude couldn't recognise, but he thought he should. _I suppose that's what happens if you life you're whole life outside nature._

"Well, you can tell me all about your journey tomorrow, alright. I'd better not leave Denny alone for too long. Now, I'm sure you'll two have a good night, okay!" Rachel's voice went suspiciously higher again as she said that last part, but Rena didn't seem to notice the implications. Or Rena was doing what Claude had decided to do, and was pretending it wasn't there.

As soon as the door was closed and locked, Rena put down her things, pulled a set of blankets of the shelf and started to prepare one of the barren beds for herself. Claude thought it sensible to do the same while there was still a little light, but…

"Who's Master Flac?"

Rena stopped what see was doing. "Oh. He's a… friend of mine. He's from Arlia, but he left three years ago." Rena stopped as if she expected Claude to say something but since he didn't she added "And, well… I've not heard from him since."

So, that was fine wasn't it? A lot of people must know Rena, she wasn't like himself here, blinding he way though a world where no one knew his name. But Ernest was alone, wasn't he? Ernest was pretty much just like Claude. But maybe it would have been easier to relate to Rena if she was also alone though…

Claude immediately cut that thought before he could go further, as he realised the implications of what he was thinking. Without saying a word or bothering to make a bed, he took off he shoes and jacket and went to sleep before Rena could say anything else. Rena was almost certainly confused by his display, but Claude didn't want to explain such a thing.

* * *

**Dictionary: Krosse (City)**

Krosse city is comprised of three circular layers, roughly called the Inner City (in the centre of which lies the royal palace), in Middle City and the Outer City. In general, the closer to the palace, the wealthier the layer of the city is. Each portion of the city is separated by stone walls, which represented the outer limit of the city at sometime in the past, but this outer wall was built again twice at larger distances from the centre as the city grew. Even now, the poorest citizens live outside the walls of the Outer City, so it's quite possible that sometime in the future, a fourth wall and another layer of the city will be developed.


	15. C2 08 Witch Matching Prince?

**Chapter 2 – 8: Witch Matching Prince?**

**SD366-06-06**

"Enter the city today. You will see something quite interesting."

_Why will you not leave me alone?! I don't want to know about you or Sabott or anyone!_

"You see it. Your world falls apart around you. Correct this injustice, take back what is yours."

_We do not share a world. We do not share anything!_

"Your fear is known to me. But you will believe, I mean you no harm. I only show you that which is true."

_Go away!_

"That does not happen. You have a great destiny ahead and I am guiding you to it. Twenty years ago, I was right. And I am right, now and forever."

_Dark Sphere, it was because of you I lost!_

"You are deceived. You lost nothing. You cannot lose anything. I do nothing to harm you."

_You are the one who deceives me!_

"Camael, Zadkiel. They've almost found you. But you've come too far now. Listen and everything will work out as it should. Go into the city. You will see, you will learn it was not I who causes you pain. You are not as the others are; you are not a foolish girl. I know. Do as you feel, not for me, but for yourself. This is right."

_Go away!_

"Remember, I am always watching you, Philia."

***

Claude was gazing over the jars of dried biscuits that lined one of the shelves of what seemed an otherwise normal food store in Krosse. It would probably be a good idea to buy a few for the journey onward, and they should keep for a while. But he hadn't discussed with Rena exactly when they would leave Krosse, and until he did, it was probably a bit premature to buy them. Claude couldn't help but wonder which would taste best, but it was impossible to tell these things when travelling on new planets until you tried it.

There was still about two hours until the meeting with Ernest, until then, he and Rena had taken to exploring the city and in particular the stores for anything that might be required for the journey. Of course, there was plenty of time to look at other things. It was a very bright and warm day by Claude's standards, so staying indoors looking at various trinkets suited him just fine.

When he thought about it, this was certainly going to make a strange story for him to tell one day.

"Clyde, what are you doing?" a voice from behind came. Claude ignored it at first, but the woman speaking clearly intended for it to be directed at him when he noticed that no one else replied and she was standing uncomfortably close behind him.

"Clyde, I'm talking to you!"

Claude turned to a very beautiful face with brown eyes and backed by long purple hair. Claude started to look further down to see her skin covered in intricate symbols indicating a person learned in symbology, but stopped almost immediately when he realised the combination of thin violet dress topped with a white shawl were worn in a way that demonstrated that modesty was not one of this woman's hang ups.

"Uhh…" _What do I do?_ He had never seen this woman before; surely he would remember someone like her. Obviously, she must have confused him with someone else… why was she standing so close to him?

Still, there was nothing to do but try and wave her off. Putting on the biggest smile that he could and hoping for the best, he waved both hands to show he didn't know anything assuming she could understand that and to also increase his personal space. "Sorry, I don't know you."

The woman wrinkled her nose in puzzled for a moment, and during the silence, Claude wondered just where the heck Rena was. And why wasn't she helping?

"What's this gibberish your saying? And why are you out here like this? And don't you think you're drawing attention, wearing those ridiculous clothes?"

_What was with all the questions anyway?_

"Claude, who are you talking to?" Funnily, Rena's tone of voice didn't relax Claude as much as he had been hoping for. Perhaps he was even feeling more tense.

"Ah, Rena. It's just this woman, she…" Rena and the new woman seemed to eye each other up. "I think she must think I am someone else" Claude said weakly. It was strange, today seemed like it had suddenly just gotten quite a bit warmer than it already was.

"Excuse me, but he doesn't speak our language. Do you have any reason to bother Claude?" Rena asked, stepping herself between Claude and the new woman and forcing a little space between them. Rena made a good effort to make her height disadvantage to Claude and the new woman seemingly vanish.

"Claude?"

"Yes, Claude" Rena said firmly.

"Hmmm… well, if he really were Clyde, he wouldn't be acting like this." The woman expression became internal for a moment as she must have considered her mistake. "My dear, I am engaged to a man who looks just like your friend here. Same height, same face, same colour hair, same everything."

"There's someone who looks just like me? That's impossible." Claude said rather sceptically. When you met strangers for the first time, you had to be careful. It was wrong to think everyone was out to take advantage of you, but it was only sensible.

"Are you sure? That seems rather unlikely." Rena said.

"Of course it's true!" she said indignantly. "Claude and Rena, was it?"

"That's right."

"I am Celine Jules. And you…" here, she made a special point of facing Claude "… have the remarkable luck to perfectly match my fiancé in every aspect of appearance."

_Luck, huh?_

"Fiancé? Oh, congratulations then! Of course, with the Royal Wedding of Clauzer Krosse and Rozaria Lacuer in a few days, it has surely inspired more than a few couples to also commit!" Rena said.

"Ah, yes… I suppose it has." Celine was suddenly quiet.

But Claude was more interested in something else. _A man who looks just like me?_ "Wow, that's pretty freaky." But how was it that Claude could share so much in common with this other man? They weren't even the same species! Of course, it could be some sort of scam maybe. Although if that were true, Claude couldn't yet see what this woman was trying to gain. On the other hand, there was possibly some Krosse cultural confusion here, but still… "I want to meet this man who looks like me. Rena, could ask her that?"

"Should we really ask that of her?"

"Why not? There is something strange about a man who shares so much with me. I need to find out what it is. And what else are we planning on doing while we wait?" If there was any possibility of a trick, then the one way for this woman to prove herself true would be to bring out this other man.

"Oh, I suppose it couldn't hurt." Rena turned to face Celine. "Celine, this man you're engaged to, Clyde you said? Since you say he looks exactly like Claude, and we weren't planning on leaving town until after witnessing the Royal Wedding, would it be possible for you to introduce us?"

"Oh… I… well, that is…" Celine suddenly seemed very nervous. Perhaps this Clyde didn't exist after all.

"What is it?"

"Look I know we've just met and you seem nice enough people. I'm not sure I should say no to a face like yours" she said, referring to Claude. "But I need to know more about you before I can introduce you."

"Oh, is there a problem?"

"Well, it's just that Clyde is a highly influential man. The sort that really needs to know who he's speaking to."

"Does he get into trouble easily?"

"He could. He's quite possibly in trouble right now." Possibly due to seeing Rena and Claude's shocked faces, Celine added "not that kind of trouble. He's in no danger of being hurt, just in possibly making some people upset."

"We don't need to learn his family history, I just wanted to see how much he looked like me" Claude said, which Rena repeated for Celine's benefit.

"Rena, Claude. I must ask you about who you are."

"Oh, well, we're travellers. I'm from Arlia."

"Never heard of it dear."

"It's a normal small town south of Salva. We've come as a stop over, representing our village at the Royal Wedding ceremony. After that, we're…"

"…searching for Rena's parents." Claude interrupted.

"Pardon, but what did he say?" Celine asked.

Claude talked to Rena in a lowered voice, although it was really more due to habit, since Celine wouldn't understand anyhow. "Rena, I don't think it's a good idea to mention the Sorcery Globe just yet, she'll probably think we're crazy."

"We're searching for my parents." Rena finished. "We're heading for Kurik and then for…" Rena stopped herself, apparently realising she was about to mention Ell "… I guess we'll see what happens from there."

"Interesting. Well, I guess it should be okay if you meet my Clyde. Darlings, you can follow me to a restaurant where we often meet? They serve a very nice rabbit risotto."

A restaurant? Hmmm… well, that should be reasonably public. Provided they didn't get tricked into ordering anything they couldn't afford, Claude couldn't see how he could have to worry too much.

***

Celine absent-mindedly ringed her hair around her fingers as she waited in the 'The Fattened Goose', the small, dimly-light and yet classy restaurant where she usually met with Clyde after he sneaked out of the castle. While they had been here enough times for the waiting staff to recognise Celine as a regular, the staff never tried to be friendly and ask questions that Celine would have difficulty answering. And that made the place perfect for her.

Across from her, Claude and Rena sat quietly, but definitely not subdued. Both of them turned their eyes and heads around repeatedly, soaking in everything they could about the place they were in. It was obvious that neither was from around here, and whether it was gaping at the lavish landscape paintings on the walls or just examining the intricate patterns on the cutlery, they did it without restraining their wonder. If they were going to come to places like this, they should probably learn to fidget and gape less, or people would start thinking they didn't belong here.

Celine ordered food for both of them, since neither seemed to have any clue as to what half the food was. The experience would do them good, provided they didn't try to take advantage of her hospitality. But they seemed too inexperienced for that. And Claude was a strange one, he understood everything perfectly, but couldn't speak a word himself. It was as good a point as any to start the conversation at, before moving on the more important matter of why he had an identical appearance to Clyde.

"So Rena, how does Claude understand, but not speak an educated word?"

"aim veh ri eh jE ke tihd" Claude seemingly protested. "ai haed tap marks aet dhi E kae dE mi." There was a momentary pause followed by "wet dont traenz let dhaet."

Rena spoke automatically to cover the translation. "He says he's very educated, he got top marks at the academy and he doesn't want me to trans… oh."

They both cringed simultaneously, Claude at his words coming out unintentionally and Rena at her realisation that she was translating without actually listening to what she was saying.

Celine sipped her wine slowly as she listened. Maybe she would just ignore what had been said for now. She was here expecting some important news that even the appearance of a perfect match for her man could not override, but this Claude would warrant a thorough investigation to determine his origin later.

Suddenly, the man that they had been waiting for appeared, sat down and began talking to Celine before he got a good look at Celine's new friends at the dimly lit table.

"Celine, we can't stay here…"

"Why?"

"We should leave the city. Today even. It's…" Clyde's speech slowed greatly as he viewed his guest seated across from him. "Just who is this man?"

"Your twin is Claude and his friend Rena. This fellow wanted to meet you. So darling, tell me what you think."

"Right now, I don't know what to think. Expect that if I was a lesser man, I could send him back in my place and get away with it."

After that Clyde and Claude both stared at each other. Sure, the hair was styled differently, and Clyde's neat white clothes and would never be confused for Claude's strangely marked yellow jacket. But when it came to their handsome facial structure such as the high cheekbones or the purity of their blue eyes, they were a perfect and uncanny match. Clyde hid his identity in public for obvious reasons, but with such similarity, it was amazing that Claude had apparently not been misidentified by anyone other than Celine herself.

"wau yu ri li du lUk laik mi" said Claude.

"As good as a mirror" Added Rena, apparently agreeing with whatever Claude had just said.

While this could turn out to be a rather entertaining day, Celine had more important things to discuss with Clyde. Before meeting her fiancé's duplicate and his friend, she had been canvassing the streets for words filtering out from the castle. It never took very long for gossip to leave each morning with the servants who worked there and today was no exception. But there was one piece of news that she was expecting, but was totally absent.

"Clyde, I haven't heard any rumours out here so far. You went to tell her that you weren't going to marry her, right?"

"Yes" Clyde said warily.

"So, how did she take it?"

"Well, it sort of didn't happen."

"What? Clyde! I thought you said you were going to tell her!"

"I did tell her!" Clyde said defensively, followed somewhat meekly by "It just… she didn't seem to hear."

"Didn't seem to hear? As in, you, say, whispered it to her from across the room and then ran away?"

"No! I told her properly. Three times even! But she didn't react at all. In fact, she seemed even more determined to continue the preparations."

"Are you seeing two woman at once?!" Rena said in shock from across the table. Too loud she was, that was the way to garner attention you didn't want.

"No. I'm seeing one woman and she's sitting right here. The other one thinks I'm marrying her" Clyde said firmly.

"And why would she have that idea?" asked Rena.

"Probably because our families arranged it. Along the lines of 'you are destined to be together'." For the last part, Clyde had a tone of derision in his voice.

"Arranged marriage?" Claude's reaction was not unexpected, as among the lower castes, arranged marriage was pretty uncommon. But it may just have been because he was from someplace far away.

"Yes. Of course, they won't say it to my face, but I've got the impression that Rozaria and I were both born expressly to bring the families of Krosse and Lacuer together one day."

Celine could see the expressions on both Claude and Rena's faces working hard. Which was not unexpected However, Celine jolted in surprise when Rena suddenly managed to deduce just who Clyde had to be. "You're Prince Clauzer?!"

"Clyde!" Celine said, looking around nervously. "You let your mouth ahead of your thoughts!" And then to Rena and Claude "Please, you won't tell the castle or anyone, will you?" Despite the outburst, it seemed that the seclusion had hidden it enough for no one else to notice.

Claude and Rena both looked very much out of the depth, and who could blame them? Tell the castle with such a story from someone totally unknown? Inform them that their prince, who was only a couple of days away from marrying Princess Rozaria and joining the two greatest countries in the world was intent of leaving her at the altar to run away with a treasure hunting crest magician? Such thoughts would make even the bravest of persons think twice.

"Well, the preparations are still going ahead. I'm beginning to think that we'll have no choice but to leave the city before then. Rozaria is a lot more single-minded than I had expected." Clyde sounded somewhat resigned, but then became more serious and he turned his attention to the new comers. "Well, now that you know, I'll offer you some advice. Leave the city. I don't expect anything bad to happen to unrelated people such as yourselves, but the guard will probably turn the city upside down looking for me when they learn they can't find me" Clyde said. "And yours is probably not a face that you would want to own when that happens." Clyde brought his face back to Celine. "I'm not going back to the castle. And…"

"Darling?"

"Rozaria may be single-minded, but she isn't stupid. I left while I could, but I figure that she must have told someone by now. It'll probably be a few hours before they take it seriously that it more than cold feet. So I want to leave before then. I hope that's alright with you."

"Oh, but of course. There's nothing to worry about, you know I'm much more experienced out there than you."

Clyde and Celine snuggled up, forehead touching forehead and noses rubbing side to side. "My dear, I think you might have to show me just how experienced you are" Clyde whispered.

"I think I'm going to throw up." Rena's comments weren't appreciated but Celine quickly forgave her. She really was still too inexperienced to understand, Celine supposed.

***

"Oh damnit, we forgot to meet Ernest!" Claude suddenly said in shock. Everyone else at the table suddenly went quiet, and Claude watched the realisation appear on Rena's face as she must have just remembered the same. It was over and hour and a half since their appointed meeting in the town square, how long must he have waited there while Claude conversed with his new acquaintances?

Claude quickly reached for his communicator, not caring that Celine and Clyde would see it. Ernest was the only one on this planet who could fully appreciate his situation, and if there was even a slight chance that he could still reach him, then he was going to take it.

It was then that Claude realised that he hadn't taken the earlier opportunity to learn of Ernest's communicator ID. _How could I have been so stupid?!_ He had assumed that he could get away with not learning it because he was always planning to be near Ernest for the rest of the journey, but he had stuffed it up already!

Realising that Ernest was the only other person on the entire planet with a communicator, Claude quickly pulled his own communicator from his jacket and scanned the entire city on all frequencies. Ernest would pick up something, and he would surely realise that it would have to be Claude trying to contact him, right? But after a minute of trying, re-adjusting the power settings and retrying again and again, there was nothing.

Claude's mind raced, trying to figure out the possibilities. _Does Ernest even have a communicator?_ But how could he not? He had translators, and he had mentioned it, hadn't he? _Perhaps he turned it off to save power?_ But that seemed silly, Ernest would know that Claude would try to contact him, and thus he would surely leave it on.

Claude stood up and rushed out the door, running to the town square. Claude didn't know the city, but it was easy enough to figure out which way the town square must be. But, over ninety minutes? Still, Claude nimbly dodged the hundreds of citizens (leaving a few of them yelling in his wake) as raced on the stone streets to the centre of town.

By the time Claude reached the centre, he was breathing so hard he felt he could hardly make the last few steps to the grand clock overlooking the square. Placed on a cast iron pole and standing three times as tall as Claude, it made a good support to rest upon. But as Claude gazed around, still panting, he saw that he got a few strange looks, but Ernest, whose height should make him easy to see among the crowd, was nowhere to be found.

"Hey, you! Get off the grass!" yelled an angry voice to his right. "Can't you read the sign?" It appeared to be some sort of guard, or something. He had a uniform and a sword at least. Claude looked down and saw that he had apparently crossed into some forbidden space to prevent the common folk from actually touching the clock. Waving him off, Claude made his way off the trimmed grass and unto what looked like an empty public seating area nearby. He had drawn enough attention to himself today as it was.

_Oh great, now what am I going to do?_

Three minutes later, Claude was breathing normally again, and Rena, followed by Celine and Clyde, entered the square. It didn't take them long to spot him and they quickly walked over to him.

"Sorry about that Rena."

"So, I take it we've missed him?"

Claude didn't anything, choosing instead to slowly nod his head.

"It was my fault too. I should have remembered" Rena said.

"We just got so sidetracked looking at my clone, I don't know how it could have happened. We buggered this one up good" Claude said exasperated.

"Excuse me dearies, but just what should you have remembered?" Celine asked.

"We were supposed to meet someone here at midday" Rena explained. "We only met him for the first time yesterday, but Claude wanted to keep in contact because they had something in common."

"I don't know how we can find him now. I suppose we could come back tomorrow and see if he has the same idea, or just wait here until whenever he happens to come by… but we may be waiting forever. What if we offended him by not showing up?" There wasn't really much they could do if they had.

"What about Kurik? He knows we're heading that way right?"

Claude nodded. "True. We could just go there alone and if he's there too, it might be easier. Travel along the road, and then wait at the entrance. If he's heading to Kurik, we'll pass him that way. Perhaps we should go now then."

"But we're supposed to attend the wedding… oh" Rena said, with a slight tone of disappointment.

"We might as well leave the city right now. Let's just get our things. We can resupply there."

Clyde volunteered himself to join them. "As I said earlier, at this point the possibility of talking her out of it has failed. The only way to ensure I don't get forced into marrying Rozaria is to leave the city before they find me. And since we all want to leave, we might as well leave together, wouldn't you say? Claude, Rena. Celine and I would like to join you on your way to Kurik. From there we don't know where we will go, but it's better than nothing." Clyde said.

"That's your plan?" Claude asked.

"I was thinking, perhaps we can stop in Marze or someplace like that afterwards. I'm sure I can convince someone there to marry us, and then even the royal family will have no choice but to accept reality" Celine said. She made it sound as if every problem would fall away and her simple solution.

Clyde was more serious and concerned about the present though. "We don't know how the people of the city will react when they learn of this. And more importantly, we don't know how the Royal Guard will react. While we can probably hide in the city itself for a long time, they're sure to lock down the gates and watch everything that passes. We'd never be able to leave. Claude, Rena, we should do it before the general populace learns that the Royal Wedding is a no show…"

Claude was just thinking that surely Clyde was exaggerating a bit, when Clyde's explanation was cut short by a pretty woman with ridiculously long pink hair, who was apparently just walking by at that exact moment, collapsing right in front of them unconscious. Celine and Clyde managed to react just fast enough to catch her before she hit her head on the stone street. Rena immediately leant down to look at her, leaving Claude the only one standing. The immediate crowd around the group looked silently in their direction, leaving Claude feeling a little bit useless.

"Wow" Claude said flatly into the suddenly silence. Some people really did react badly to such news.

* * *

**Dictionary: Celine Jules**

A confident and attractive young Expellian woman who is well-trained in the art of crest magics, she found life in her home town of Marze too confiding and decided to instead explore the world at large as a treasure hunter. From a young age, Celine displayed a remarkable talent for crest magic and even among a town of dedicated magic users she was well respected and one day thought to become a respected member of Marze's magical council. But she found life outside of Marze to be much more exciting and suitable for the limitless powers that her tattooed crests provide than staying and looking over the Sealed Forest near Marze.

It was during this time away from home that she met and after a period of two years, fell in love with a man she knew as Clyde, but partway through the relationship learned that in fact he was Prince Clauzer T. Krosse. Celine knew that such a relationship would be difficult due to his position and Clyde's nature, but chose to continue it anyway.

Celine is 167 cm tall and weighs 50 kg. Her birthday is SD343, September 18th, when converted to the standard Federation calendar.


	16. C2 09 Princess

**Chapter 2 - 9: Princess**

**SD 366-06-06**

Claude reflected that today had just gotten more and more complicated. It was rather ridiculous really, missing Ernest, finding an identical prince and a now a girl that had dropped into their laps, far more literary than Claude had thought possible. But just how many people actually fainted when presented with bad news? Wasn't that the sort of thing that only existed in stories for the sake of drama? It wasn't supposed to happen in real life. It might be a characteristic of the people of this planet, he supposed.

Or more specifically, of her species. No one had mentioned anything yet, but anyone could see that this woman possessed the same long ears that Rena did. Surely Rena was already thinking of all sorts of questions to ask this young woman when she awoke. They had not travelled very far at all and already met another person of what was presumably the same species, so perhaps finding Rena's parents would not be so difficult after all.

The young woman was now lying on the bed in the hotel's spare room. It was obvious that someone would have to tend for her, and seeing as there was no one around that seemed to know her, it fell to Claude and his friends to do it. So they had carried her here to let her rest, while they tended to and discussed this latest event.

"I'll try a bit of healing on her." Rena said.

Slowly moving her hand over the fallen woman's body, a pale green light encasing a fuzzy circle in the air momentarily appeared. The circle was very much like the crests that Claude had all seen before demonstrated by his father. The lettering and words inside the circle was unknown to Claude, but even the latest translators couldn't interpret the words of symbology anyway.

"Wait a moment!" Celine protested while Rena worked her magic. "There's no such thing as a healing crest!"

"Huh?" was all Claude managed. How was it that Celine didn't know of a healing crest when healing was one of the most basic symbologies? Yet a person like Celine who was supposed to be learned of such things, on a planet with a reasonable level of symbology – or crest magic if they wanted to call it that – didn't know about healing? Perhaps Claude could find out more about this later, although he would have to do so without revealing too much that went against the Federation's rules and practices.

"Wait. First, what kind of tattoo did you use for that, Rena?" Celine asked. "Or is the crest on paper? Either way, I need to see it!"

"Ah, well, I don't have a crest?"

"One what?"

"I don't have the crest."

"But… but that's impossible! It's impossible to use crest magic without a crest!"

"Yeah. That's true, I think." Claude said, although there wasn't much point since he still hadn't given Celine or Clyde a translator. More to the point, this was again linked with Jie, a man who was officially never recorded in Federation history, despite waging a war against them twenty years ago, according to his dad. A man who could use symbols through his DNA alone. Could Rena be from a species of such people? Definitely something to try and find out later.

"Dearest, this is all very interesting and exciting, but I think we really should talk about this later." Clyde said. "Perhaps sometime when we don't have a comatose body in front of us?"

"Well, what shall we do then?"

"I know CPR, but that's probably not useful right now." Claude said.

"What's was that?" Celine asked Rena.

"Oh, it's just a way to get people who have stopped breathing to… well… breathe." Claude said, and Rena repeated the words.

A weak voice came from the girl "…see". But that was all. She seemed to readjust herself slightly, maybe. Claude waited for a while, but she made no other sounds.

Clyde was the first to speak. "I never like to see a lady in trouble, but we really shouldn't be staying here if it's going to be this way. Perhaps there are other ways to wake her up?"

"Well, I suppose we could buy some salts. They shouldn't be hard to find or very expensive."

"Let's go then." Claude said. He felt he just needed to do something that seemed like it was helping.

"Hang on, we can't all go. We can't leave the girl here alone" Rena protested, and Claude couldn't disagree with her. Claude knew that he wouldn't be leaving until the girl seemed like she could take care of herself, and he was fairly certain that Rena, Celine and Clyde would do the same.

"I'll get it" Celine volunteered. "I'll be back soon enough."

While Celine certainly would be the best person to send, Claude thought that while they were doing that, it was time to breach the communication barrier. After what had happened, they probably deserved it. If they spilt ways later, he could just ask for them back.

"Rena, I'd like let these two in on my world. Is it okay to leave you here with this girl while we all go get the salts?"

"Huh? Well, I guess that's fine. Celine, Clyde. Claude would like to go with the both of you, he has something to show you."

Celine and Clyde looked at each other in confusion. They were probably wondering just what that could be, when they couldn't understand him. Fortunately, that wouldn't last long.

"As you say Rena." Celine said, although it was clear that she had her doubts. "We'll head over to middle city's southern market. It's not far, and there'll be stores there that have the salts that we need."

***

Rena cast another light healing crest over the unconscious woman, although she knew it probably wouldn't help her any more than her last one. _I guess it's just something to do while I wait._

Sitting in a chair by the bed wasn't going to become interesting anytime soon, and Rena found herself looking at the brown cloth bag belonging to the woman that they had brought with her. Perhaps there was something useful in there that would tell her who this other girl with long ears was?

Quietly, she undid the single button holding the bag closed and looked inside. There wasn't that much. No money or anything to identify her, only a few wrapped pieces of bread and… a music box? Pulling it out gently, it fitted neatly in her two cusped hands and Rena could see the there was an intricate crest of gold etched into the blue-painted varnished wood. The crest on the front of the box was not one that Rena recognised, but it did seem familiar somehow. But thinking it over for a minute got her no closer to what it was.

_What sound will it make?_

Rena managed to lift the lid a fraction and hear a single note before a third hand appeared out of nowhere and clamped it shut again. Shocked Rena's eyes followed the attached arm to find the now conscious woman sitting on the bed and looking sternly at her.

"Please don't do that." Then her expression rapidly softened, she withdrew her hand and just for a moment, her body jittered. She continued, her speech a bit more timid. "I… I mean, it's just that I have a lot of memories stored in that box."

The woman gently took back her musicbox and placed it beside her.

"So, who are you, and where are we?"

"Oh, sorry for being so rude. My name is Rena."

"Is that right? Call me Philia."

"Philia, you collapsed in the town square today."

"Did I? I must have suffered quite a shock."

"Oh, I trust that you are fine. We brought you here for you to recover."

"We?"

"There were four of us when you fell, right in front of us. They went to the southern market in the middle city to see if they could get some smelling salts, we thought it might help. Really, if you had woken up a moment earlier, they wouldn't have needed to bother."

"That seems very kind of you. Do you mind if you tell me who was with you?"

"Do you remember them from just before you fell? They were Claude, Celine, and Clyde."

"I see. I will try to remember their faces." That was an odd way to put it, Rena thought. But Philia made no further comments, leaving a silent pause that Rena felt compelled to fill.

"Umm… so how are you feeling?"

Philia jerked, as if she had just been thinking off in some far-away place inside her mind that was pulled back to reality. "Huh? Oh… I'm fine." Philia gave her own body a very quick look over, but it was clear that she expected to not find any injuries. "Perfectly fine."

"Well, that's a relief. You know, now that I think about it, I've had a pretty amazing day, and it's not even mid-afternoon yet."

"Have you? Well, some people are just lucky, I guess. So, how do I fit into your situation I wonder?" Philia stared at Rena for a long time, and Rena began to wonder just why, until she hit upon the idea that maybe, Philia was also wondering her similarity to Rena.

"Philia, why do you have long ears?"

"Huh" Philia snapped back into awareness. "Why do I have long ears? Because they're part of who I am. If I didn't have long ears, I'd be someone else."

"Umm… yes." Rena supposed that did make sense, but it wasn't anywhere near what she was aiming for. "What I mean is, well, do your parents have long ears?"

"Why would you think otherwise?"

"Oh, well, it's a bit forward I suppose to ask this of you."

Philia started to giggle a little. "What is? Look, you might as well just ask, I'm not going to be offended if you ask about something like ears."

"Oh, it's just that, I've never met anyone with ears like mine. I was abandoned, and I don't remember my parents, so you see…"

"_You_ were abandoned?!" Philia exclaimed, so loudly that Rena could hardly believe that the voice had come from Philia's tiny frame. Philia quickly recomposed herself, and Rena for a while thought that Philia might try to add to her previous exclamation, but she say anything.

"Umm… you make it sound as if you're parents abandoned you too." Rena asked, a tad nervously.

"No, my parents did not abandon me." Philia's voice was back to its quiet self.

"So, why did you shout like that?"

"Well, I was just surprised that you would say something like that, that's all." Philia visibly fidgeted while sitting on the bed uncomfortably. "I mean, for you to bring up a topic like that…"

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't want to bother you with that. It's just that, I noticed that since you ears are the same, you might know where the rest of our face came from. I don't know anywhere on the world where people with long ears live, so I thought you might know."

"You don't remember?"

"No. It was a very long time ago. I must have been too young to remember it."

"Everyone forgets everything, given enough time, it seems." Philia said, her voice becoming reflective. "Things that should be remembered are lost…"

Rena didn't really know how to reply to that. Philia was evidently touching on something personal to her, and Rena didn't feel she should really ask about it.

"That's why I'm going to look for them." Rena said. "My parents, that is. Maybe they aren't alive any more, or who knows what, but recently I've felt the need to go find them. I guess maybe when I met Claude I felt a little inspired."

"Claude? How long have you been…" Here, Philia paused for no reason Rena could discern. "…travelling?"

"So far, it's only been a day really. If every day of the journey is like this one, I think I might collapse before I find my parents!"

Philia gave a little grin "I don't think you have to worry about that. You seem to be holding up better than I do."

"So, uh… are you hungry?" Rena asked. Maybe if the girl wasn't eating well, it might explain why she fainted. The destitute could often have this befall them, although from appearances, Philia was nowhere near suffering a lack of money.

"I… I'm fine. Besides, do you have anything here to eat that you haven't taken from my bag?"

"Oh. I don't think so." Actually, when they had left the hotel this morning, they had still been planning to attend the wedding celebrations over the next few days. Of course, Clyde and Celine had shelved that idea, as well as losing Ernest. "But, I'm sure aunt Rachel would let me cook something up in the kitchen."

"You have a talent for cooking. Well, I should have known" Philia said, before adding hastily "you look the type. I only have a talent for eating." Didn't everyone? But as a slip of a girl, it didn't look like Philia applied her 'talent' too often. "Perhaps in a past life, cooking was something I could apply myself to, but I thought those days were over. Then again, eating is nice too. It's too bad you get fat when you eat too much, I sometimes think it would be great if you could just eat and eat."

"I think that might get a bit gross after a while" Rena said

"That's true. Perhaps we're right. So, maybe just to be able to eat a lot and not get fat? I wish that I should be like that in my next life" Philia said.

"That's a funny thing to wish for, don't you think?"

"Oh, never mind, it's just so I can enjoy the taste of it. Say Rena, what do you like to eat?"

Well, there were quite a lot of things, when she thought about it. It depended on where you where, and who you were with. But if she had to pick something… "My favourite is something that I can make myself, I think… shortcake" Rena said with a small chuckle. Her mother wouldn't think it healthy to eat that too often.

"I'll take it that my wish for my next had better be for the both of us then." Philia said.

Then again, shortcake probably wasn't that great if you ate it all the time as Philia was suggesting.

At first, Rena had thought of Philia as being extremely timid, and had a tendency to drift off into staring into space, but this girl was not such a bad conversationalist as she first appeared. Perhaps they had something in common besides ears afterall.

***

It didn't take long for Celine to find a town healer that they found in the city's bustling middle section, and naturally his store had small quantities of smelling salts to sell amongst the myriad of herbs. It was only one of the hundreds of stores and street vendors that you could find in Krosse everyday, trying to make ends meet. Finding a good healer wasn't always easy, and more than a few had been tricked by the unscrupulous. Celine was fortunate in that regard, her training as a crest magician back home in Mars included the studies of commonly used medical and magic powders, which meant that she could easily see through the tricks used to wrangle money from the city's common folk, and so far this particular store hadn't seemed the type. But Celine wasn't silly enough to let her guard down, and she waited patiently for the owner to weigh out the tiny amount of powder so she could check it herself before handing over the coins for it. In the meantime, she gazed over the various perfumes on sale.

Rena and her powers were a miracle compared to the herbs and powders found in stores like this one though. Perhaps… just perhaps, Celine could learn something from her. And one day, perhaps stores like this would no longer be. With the powers of crest magic like Rena's to heal with, injury would never be a problem ever again!

Of course, when it came to miracles, Claude was no slouch either. Celine restrained herself from poking again the tiny stone in her ear to convince herself. Claude had already explained it, but Celine didn't know how she would ever get over it. Clyde had seemed quite accepting of the idea though. The pair of them seemed to be hitting it off quite well. They were discussing the various coloured potions in various coloured bottles that were stored in the locked cabinets for the public to browse, along side dozens of perfumes and other scents that didn't require such security. The shop they were in was filled with rows and rows of things at all, and the shelves, like the building itself, stuck out at weird angles at seemingly random places, making the place look far more crowded than it really needed to be.

When the store owner had finished his measurements for the smelling salts and sealed them inside a small glass vial, Celine paid the man and went to collect Clyde and Claude from the store shelves. Only they were no longer there, or anywhere.

_Where'd they go?_

It didn't take more than a curious glance to find them attempting to hide in a corner of the room, pressed against the wall as much as they could without trying to look obvious to others that they were trying to press themselves against the wall. There wasn't anyone else in the store to see them, and the owner had left to count things in the back rooms apparently, so why?

"Clyde! What are you doing?"

"Shhh! I'm keeping myself out of view from those outside the shop."

"And why?"

"Have you seen who is out there?"

"Who could possibly be out there?" Celine muttered to herself as she waled to the store's only entrance. This was really rather silly of Clyde, and Claude too, she supposed. What could make them…

_Rozaria!_

Celine stopped short at the open door. Rozaria was here?! Celine had never met the woman, but there was no question that it was her. The woman across the road matched the descriptions that Clyde had told her, long blond tresses framing a pale face, and her over-accessorised pink dress was needed to be constantly lifted off the ground by her two handmaidens to prevent it getting dirty, although that was a task doomed for failure. Surrounding her were at least six soldiers, all wearing the gold-tinted armour of Lacuer over blue uniforms.

At this moment, Rozaria seemed intent on possibly tearing the store across the road apart with her bare hands. It seemed that she was barely maintaining a façade of calm behind which a furious woman was demanding everyone and everything get out of the way of whatever she was looking for. And Celine instantly guessed what that was.

_She's looking for Clyde? Personally?!_

Clyde had never said Rozaria was like this. He'd always talked of her as if she was lazy and spoilt, indeed, a perfect stereotype of a princess. But here she was, amongst the citizens themselves. But spoilt, yes that could be right. There was a small crowd around her, perhaps smaller than what might be expected from a visiting dignitary, but they kept well back, away from the princess' rage.

She appeared to be moving from store to store, why Celine didn't know. But if that was the case, Celine couldn't let her in this particular store. Looking for any excuse to keep her out, Celine snatched the first thing off the shelf that looked like it might work, it was a bottle of brimstone powder. This was going to be unpleasant later, but Celine opened it and then used her crest magics to light the tiniest flame inside the bottle that she could. Immediately, the stench of burning brimstone surrounded her as well as the shop. And just in time, as the princess turned her attention to this shop and came up to the doorway that Celine was in.

"Who are you?! And… and what is that smell?!" The princess visibly wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"I…" Rozaria couldn't know who Celine was, but Celine didn't think now was the right time to let her find out. "I am… Armana. I work at this store. Can I help you with something?"

Armana was the name of a friend of Celine's back in Marze. Celine felt a little bad for using her name at a time like this, but since the name wasn't that uncommon it wouldn't cause any problems in the long term. And it seemed that although she had asked, Rozaria didn't really care who Celine was. Her tone was short and more than slightly arrogant, a person used to being answered favourably. "Have you seen a man anywhere near here? Blond hair, a bit taller than you, well-dressed?"

_Rozaria, just what kind of person are you really?_ She didn't really seem to know how to act to ordinary people without turning them against her. Perhaps it was the being a royal away from society, since Clyde had also been a bit inept at social contact at first, although he was more shy than angry. Still, Celine had fixed Clyde right up, and if Rozaria wanted him back, she was going to find it not so easy with Celine in the way.

"Uh, no your majesty. We have not had anyone of that description in our store today."

"Of course you haven't" Rozaria said, standing on her toes in a vain attempt to get a clear look inside behind the dozens of shelves. "It looks like it would be easy to hide in there."

"Uh! Um, wait.!" "Your majesty! It's just that we just had an accident not long ago, and it is stinking up the place. You needn't worry, we are cleaning it up right now." Celine said, putting on her best smile. That's what store assistants did, always smiling even when they didn't want to.

"Your majesty, I could inspect the store for you" one of the soldiers offered. Although he was much older and taller than the princess, his voice was slightly shaky, and Celine got the feeling that the respect he had for her was partly fear. Celine was starting to get worried too for other reasons. Surely the smell would be drifting throughout the shop to where the real store owner was. If he showed up here while Celine was impersonating his job, it would be pretty much over.

"Don't bother, I don't want to travel the rest of this city next to you if that smell sticks!" Rozaria turned her attentions back to Celine looking half irritated and half distrustful. "I know him better than anyone could. He wouldn't let himself be contaminated by such a stench. But I'll be sure to remember your face also." Her attention was now back to Celine. "And you don't want to anger this princess, trust me."

Just how much angrier could she get? Celine doubted the princess was much of a threat herself, but princesses always had connections that were, and since the two of them would no doubt become acquainted one day in the future – preferably once Celine was safely married – it would be best to try and hope that Rozaria would forget 'Armana' as a nobody, despite her claims of perfect facial memory.

Jerking her head with her nose held high, Princess Rozaria quickly left for the next store to search, almost leaving her escort to trip over themselves in an effort to not be left behind. Except for one soldier dressed in Lacuer's blue and gold.

"My apologies, my lady. Her highness is not usually like this. I must admit, I've not seen her in such a state in all my time."

"That's fine. Have a nice day." _You can leave now. Please._

The soldier somehow took this as an invitation to continue chatting. "I cannot say why she is this way today, for no one but her highness herself has been made aware of her desires. Her highness had locked herself in her room earlier today for no reason we could determine, and just now she was demanding that we come with her to search the city. I'm amazed that we found ourselves out here so quickly. For whom she searches I do not know, I can only guess it is someone she desires in relation for the wedding."

Celine already knew of course that the person Rozaria wanted was the groom himself. This soldier couldn't be expected to know that the Prince had no intention of appearing at the wedding.

"Logan! What are you doing?!" It was the Princess again. She must have realised that one of her escort of lagging. "Do you want to smell like that wretch! Get over here and come on!" Rozaria didn't bother to actually make sure that soldier Logan did as he was told, she merely went on to the next store.

Without saying anything, the soldier Logan gave Celine a slight bow and left to continue his adventure with the Princess. It was not a position the Celine envied.

As soon as it seemed safe, Celine firmly shut the door. It would make the smell of brimstone worse with no airflow, but Celine just wanted to feel certain that Rozaria wouldn't suddenly change her mind and burst in.

"I'm surprised we almost ran into her. You'd think rumours of her movements through the city would be ahead of her by a fair margin." Clyde said, although Celine noted he was standing well back with his head turned to one side.

"On come on. I don't smell that bad."

"I'm sorry my darling, but you do. You really, really do." Clyde said, not holding back.

"I agree with him. Except for the 'my darling' part, but otherwise, I'm one hundred percent with him" Claude added. He wasn't helping at all.

"For someone of royal lineage, you most definitely are not acting in a gentlemanly manner. Telling a woman that she stinks right after she was forced to fend off the other woman! I mean, really."

"Celine, given that it's been an arranged marriage for all their lives, aren't you the 'other woman'?" Claude asked.

_Hmmm… I guess I am in a manner, aren't I?_

That was about all they could say before the real store owner, having sensed the smell that had finally made its way to the back rooms, came storming out panicking to see if entire shop was about to burn down. Naturally, Celine had to pay him off for the brimstone, and then she bought several bottles of perfume that she sorely needed. _Oh, please let there be enough time to have a bath before we leave the city!_

***

Celine was absolutely insistent on cleaning off that smell, so Claude ended up taking the salts back to the room alone while she and Clyde went to find someplace with water.

"Rena, we're back!" Claude announced cheerfully as he entered the hotel's spare room that they were staying in. "We got the salts, so we can wake her up now."

But as Claude looked around the room, there was something missing.

"Um… Rena, where'd the girl go?"

"Philia. Her name was Philia. And, well, she left." Rena sounded a bit depressed.

"Huh? What do you mean she left?"

"What I mean is she woke up, we talked for a bit while we waited for you to return, and then, she well, left. Walked straight out the door."

They hadn't been gone very long, but the encounter with the princess had made it seem like a very long time. The girl, Philia, had to have woken up almost immediately after they had left. _So we almost ran into disaster for no gain at all?_ It wasn't fair to blame this Philia, since it couldn't be her fault, but it felt like it would be nice from Claude's point of view.

"Why would she do that?"

"I don't know" Rena said, shrugging her shoulders. "We were just talking, and everything seemed fine, but then she suddenly that she had to leave, and in a hurry." Why would she do that? Did this Philia needed to meet someone? Or avoid someone?

"Well, did you ask about the ears? Who she was?"

"Of course I did. But I didn't really find anything out. I got distracted by some other topics, and then she left before I could bring it up again. Even when she said that she wanted to leave I brought the subject up, but she ran out without answering."

That was depressing. The first good lead they had on Rena's ancestry, and she'd gone already. Still, on the plus side, it hadn't taken more than two days to find another person like Rena, so perhaps they were more common than Rena had thought. Still, it seemed odd that Philia had felt so compelled to leave that Rena had not even managed to get anything out of her about others of her species.

"I guess there's nothing we can do now." Claude said. "When Celine and Clyde get back, I guess we'll leave the city. Also then we'll tell you all about our close encounter. Oh, and try not to comment too much to Celine's, errr… odour."

* * *

**Dictionary: Brimstone**

An alternative name for Sulphur. The smell of brimstone is said to be quite strong, but sulfur is alone odourless, and the smell of brimstone actually refers to the compound suflur dioxide, a substance of uncharacteristic importance for some unknown reason.

**Dictionary: Smelling Salts**

Ammonium carbonate ((NH4)2CO3.H2O) is a crystalline solid. These tiny crystals release ammonia (NH3), a toxic gas which in small amounts will irritate the nose and lungs, causing an inhalation reflex and the relevant muscles to work faster. And thus more oxygen will traverse the blood to the brain. In this way, it can use used to arose those that have fallen unconscious.

On Earth, the antlers of a hart can be used as a source of ammonia, but of course these days ammonia can be easily created by chemical synthesis. On Expel, they naturally need a difference source. And as you might imagine from the name, they're not something you leave open when not in use due to the smell.


	17. C2 10 MisIdentify

**Chapter 2 - 10: Mis-Identify**

**SD 366-06-06**

Everyone else was already outside, packed and ready to go, but Rena couldn't leave without saying goodbye.

It didn't take long to find Aunt Rachel. She was in the Kingdom Hotel's kitchen, sweeping the wooden floor clean of scattered food scraps. Despite the numerous obstacles around her, pots leaning over the edge of tables, hanging vegetables hanging from the ceiling and cooking maids busy preparing meals for dinner this evening, aunty never bumped any of them in the course of her work. Which was more than Rena could say for herself as she worked her way over to her.

Aunty placed her old broom aside when she saw Rena, and evidently guessed what Rena was doing even though she had left all her bags outside with the others.

"Rena, you're leaving already?" aunty asked, with a tone partly of disbelief.

"Yes, aunty."

"But…" began aunt Rachel, but Rena interrupted her before she went any further.

"Well… this is something that you should keep to yourself… but, it's not going to happen."

"What's not to happen?"

Rena looked about. Although they were doing their work cooking and cleaning, the other maids in the hotel's kitchen were no doubt listening in at the same time. Rena had to decide just how much she was going to tell her. If she said the Royal Wedding was off, the rumours would probably reach the castle in less time than it would take for Rena to walk out the hotel's front door. Of course, while Rena would probably get out of the city by then, the fact that the princess was making so much noise according to Celine meant that the rumour would probably lead the princess to the castle staff right here, hunting for witnesses. No-one had yet recognised Clyde (or falsely identified Claude as Clyde, now that Rena thought about it, which was kinda odd really), but that didn't mean that they wouldn't do so later once the prince was described to them.

"You know…" Rena said, leaning close to whisper in her aunt's ear. "… that big event in a few days." That was as specific as Rena was willing to be. Even that was probably too much.

Aunt Rachel looked at Rena in confusion. _Oh well, it is kind of hard to believe._ Aunty would figure it out soon enough anyway. After the fact, she would of course realise that the Royal Wedding was the cancelled event, but this way, she could plausibly deny anything if rumours started heading this way.

"Well, Claude and I will be leaving. We just wanted to say thanks for the bed and all."

"I'm sure you do" Aunty said with a disturbingly large smile.

"Uh…" Rena froze for a moment before realising what her aunt was implying. "It's not like that! Geez!" Rena said flustered. Claude was nice and all, but they had only met a few days ago. Why did aunty keep seeing more in it than there was? After getting over seeing him as the 'Warrior of Light', Rena found Claude easy to get along with, and perhaps they had settled into a sense of familiarity quickly enough that they could seem to have known each other longer. But that was just the nature of travelling together, it didn't change reality, no matter what aunt Rachel might think.

"As you say, Rena." Aunty was still smiling, perhaps even more than before.

Rena started digging around in her pocket for some money. "Anyway, let me give you this…" Rena didn't get to say anymore, as her aunt immediately guessed what she was trying to do.

"Rena, did you really think I was going to charge you for that room? That's a spare room for storage, not a guest room you slept in."

"I know. But I have to give you something for you help. I mean, you helped us out."

Rena tried to give her aunt a few copper coins, but Rachel gently closed Rena's hand and pressed it back to her.

"Sorry dear, but I will not be moved. You'll just have to keep your money a little longer." Rena knew there was no point trying to overcome her aunt's insistence, so she put the money back in pocket.

"Well Aunt Rachel, I guess this is goodbye then."

Her aunt then wrapped both arms tightly around her. "Oh Rena, make sure you come back when everything is finished, okay?"

***

The city was still quite crowded today, in the mid-afternoon. Claude and Clyde were walking in the lead, the two of them talking about something that Rena couldn't easily hear over the bustle of the people around them, except when one of them broke into laughter at some joke or comment the other had made. Behind them Rena walked with Celine, who seemed intent on questioning Rena about every single thing that she could thing of in relation to Rena's magic.

Unfortunately, Rena could only offer disappointments to Celine, as most of the time the only answer she could give was that she didn't know. Who had taught her? No one that Rena could remember. Did she perhaps learn if from her real mother or father that she was searching for? Rena had no idea. How did she use crest magic without tattoos? Rena didn't know.

These answers only temporarily satisfied Celine. It seemed that it was only a few moments after Rena was sure her last non-answer had been given that Celine came up with a new one, even if was just a previous question re-phased and asked at a slightly different angle.

"How old were you when you first remember using your magic?"

Rena creased her eyebrows as she had to think hard about this. "Um, I don't suppose I was much younger than I am now, maybe?"

"Well, let me ask you this. Did you ever play any tricks on the other kids using your special magic?"

"What makes you think I'd do that?!"

"Oh come on, darling Rena. Every ten-year-old plays tricks on their friends at least once." Celine looked introspective. "Then again, what kind of tricks can anyone do with healing magic anyway? Perhaps I was just projecting my childhood."

"And just what kind of tricks did you do, Celine?"

"Now, now my dear. That's a tale I'll tell you another day" Celine said with a sly smile while waving her finger.

"Okay, so what do you magic for now?"

Celine started talking in a manner-of-fact manner. "I come from a town called Marze, you've probably heard of it. It's pretty much expected of everyone born there to undertake some kind of training in using crest magics."

Rena had indeed heard of Marze. Despite its relatively small size compared to a city like Krosse, it was well respected as a major learning hub for magics. And on top of that, it was adjacent to a set of very old ruins hidden (well, not so much hidden any more, everyone knew they were there) within the forest, which attracted archaeologists and scholars from as far as Linga. Growing up in such an environment must have made it easy for Celine to get a top-line education in crest magic.

Celine continued "They were encouraging me to take a position as a librarian in the town magic repository. And while such a position can be quite tempting for some, I found the place too restrictive for my tastes." With unlimited access to all the stored knowledge acquired over the ages, Rena could well imagine the job to be the dream of any magic scholar.

"So what did you do?"

"I became a treasure hunter."

"Ah… that's quite a leap."

"Trust me Rena, it was exactly what I needed. I travelled, and searched the ruins left behind by our predecessors."

"What did you find?"

"Not much. Unfortunately, I'm not the only treasure hunter around. Most of the places I've been to have already been visited. And I haven't been to many places since I met Clyde anyway. Actually, I've probably spent more time at the town magic library in my old job than I have treasure hunting after getting engaged."

"Oh, why's that?"

"Just looking to find an answer to something. I don't think I could explain it. I can't even explain it to Clyde, and he's the reason I'm investigating–"

"Excuse me, young lady" said a deep voice from behind them as Rena felt a heavy hand on her shoulder. "Your father has…" The man interrupted himself as Rena turned to face him. He was tall, but quite thin, dressed in a green robed trimmed in red. Most unusually, he had what appeared to be two horns sticking upwards outside of his blue hair just above the ears, but Rena couldn't tell if they were real or just a strange fashion statement.

"Oh, it seems I have made a mistake. You are someone else." The man was apparently taken aback, Rena's was not the face he must have hoped for.

"Zadkiel, I told you that was going to happen" said a second man that came up behind the first. He was a huge man, towering over everyone in the square easily, and dressed in a similar dark green robe that covered everything except his balding head. His face held no expression that Rena could discern.

"Yeah, yeah. I've heard it all before." Zadkiel said, waving his hand dismissively. "But who cares, if second sight cannot actually be used for anything?" He turned his attention back to Rena "I apologise, Miss. I was looking for someone else, and I made the error of thinking she was you."

"Hmph!" said the second man. "I thought it was so obvious, I didn't need to foretell it."

"Oh come on! She looks just the same!" Zadkiel pleaded with his associate.

"Not really, if you pay attention to more than just the obvious features. And this lady's hair is far too short. Not to mention it was pink the last I saw it."

"You know how much she changes that!"

"Just forget it. Let's go. We don't need to bother these people."

The pair, having seemingly settled their bicker, returned their attention back to Rena and her group.

"We'll be going then" said the tall one.

_That was rather odd._ Still, the situation appeared to be one of mistaken identity and had sorted itself out rather quickly without any real effort on Rena's part. It's was kind of ironic that she was the one mistaken for someone else when it was Claude was practically a copy of the person that everyone would be interested in.

Since Rena was the centre of attention, Claude and the others seemed happy to let her be the one to deal with it.

"Right…"

"Now just hang on a moment!" said Zadkiel.

"Not this again" the tall man said, partly in desperation.

"Since we have wronged you, it is only fair that we compensate you" Zadkiel said.

Wronged? For what? Mistaking her for someone else? That seemed hardly a matter worth compensation, whatever that may be.

"I see the hesitation in you eyes, my dear. But I assure you that this is no trick. It is just that my partner..." and that this point, the taller partner winced, obviously wishing he was someplace else "... he's what you might call a fortune teller."

That giant man? He certainly didn't look like one. Rena supposed that his robe that hide his entire body except his head, hands and giant steal boots might fit, and he was definitely a man who looked like he wanted to keep information about himself to himself, but other than that… No crystals balls or anything.

"Oh really?" Celine said, sounding as sceptical as Rena. Actually, Celine could probably pass for a fortune teller in her 'normal' clothes. The white shawl Celine was had draped over her shoulders was something more in line with what Rena had thought a fortune teller to wear.

"Are you some kind of circus performers?" Claude and Clyde both said, almost simultaneously.

"Circus people? Are you kidding me? Do we look like some kind of 'mystical dancing fairies' to you?" Zadkiel looked and sounded like he was mocking offence, but Rena couldn't tell for sure.

Zadkiel grabbed his partner's wrist, and forced his hand out in front, although it was clear that the tall one didn't really want to. The bare hand was massive, as appropriate for someone of his size,

"Now, all you have to do is place your hand on top of his."

Rena thought her own hand tiny, and was sure the giant could easily crush hers, but these two guys didn't seem that frightening. The tall one obviously found himself somewhat embarrassed by the demands of his shorter (although still far taller than everyone else) friend.

"Like this?"

Slowly, Rena placed her right hand atop of the giant's. At the moment that they touched, there was a very brief shock that flashed across his face, but almost instantly he reverted back to his stoic persona. But it was definitely there, Rena was sure of that. At the same tine, Rena felt his hand twitch at the moment of contact, but as with his face, he immediately controlled himself.

For a moment, Rena just stood there, wondering if anything was supposed to happen. Everyone else seemed to be thinking the same thing, see saw Claude out of the corner of her eyes, fidgeting.

"Well, out with it!" Zadkiel finally said. "What do you see?"

"Ah… well." It was quite obvious that the giant was refusing to look at Rena or his friend. Meaning – if Rena remembered correctly – that he was probably going to lie about it. He looked rather uncomfortable too. He should just say that he couldn't see into the future rather than let his friend embarrass him if that was the case.

"I see someone. You've been looking for them, for a long time. A person who is both similar and yet quite different to you."

"Mother?"

"Your mother. She's looking for you too, although she doesn't know it." The giant cleared his throat, and withdrew his hand. "That's all I have to say."

"Eh? You're usually so much better at this." Zadkiel said, and then he shrugged his shoulders as he excused his partner. "Oh well. Guess he's just having a bad day."

"Excuse us. We are very busy." The larger man said. Then, without waiting for any sort of acknowledgement, he turned to his right and began making his way through the crowd, away from them.

Zadkiel managed a half-grimace, half-smile. "Forgive us" he said. Then he ran after his partner has fast as could, which was not really that fast. Being a head taller than the crowd around him, Rena though that he'd probably knock over half the city by accident if he actually ran.

It wasn't more than a few moments later, just enough that the pair had gone far enough that they could no longer hear what they had to say, when Claude gave his opinion of the events.

"A simple trick." Claude sounded unimpressed. "It's only cold reading, and very basic at that. Notice that he only talked about your mother after you said it. Before that, he was so vague, that it was useless."

"Don't say that!"

"Please Rena. Don't tell me you actually buy that."

"It's not that. It's just…" Rena clasped her hands. "Still, I hope it's true. You think we'll find her, don't you Claude? And my father too?"

Claude looked admonished for a brief moment, before a warm smile crossed his face. "Of course we will."

***

Zadkiel hastily made his way through the crowed streets of the city. The people before him naturally got themselves out of his way, his comparative domineering height saw to that. His long strides could not carry him as quickly as simply flying, but being able to find someone depended on not scaring away the rest of the population with things they could not understand.

And when it came to tracking a girl like Philia...

Of course, there would be no witnesses to ask, no matter what Zadkiel did, at least not directly. Philia never left any, though Zadkiel knew not how she managed it. It was as though the girl was adept at making people forget her the moment she left their sight. But even so, there were still ways of teasing the clues out of those that had been near her, if one knew _how_ to look. The girl might not leave her the memory of her face behind, but there was plenty else for those that knew her.

Zadkiel and his partner, the giant Camael, were officially the information gathering agents of the Ten Wise Men. They were the best, possibly in the entire universe. There was nothing they couldn't learn. At least, that was what Zadkiel thought. He knew it was somewhat arrogant to think that way, but it was silly to underrate one's abilities when all the competition paled in comparison.

Philia's unique situation, not to mention importance to Zadkiel and also her father, meant that although his skills were being fantastically wasted in tracking a single girl, it also meant that it was his responsibility. Indalecio was not a man to argue against, not that such a thought would ever cross Zadkiel's mind.

But even if it weren't for that incentive, Zadkiel knew would search for her.

And after a day of work, they had tracked her to this city, 'Krosse' as the natives called it. Philia had to be nearby. Even if she wasn't in the city itself, she could not have gone far. But Philia never made it easy. Zadkiel had for a fleeting moment thought his search was over. But after making a mistake just now, confusing another girl with similar physique and long ears for Philia in his eagerness for the search to be over, Zadkiel needed to take his frustration out. And why was Camael being so secretive anyway?

"Why'd you blow them off like that? What's it going to hurt, telling a fortune?" Zadkiel asked his taller partner.

"Second Sight isn't made for silly tricks" Camael replied in his deep voice.

"Yeah? That's never stopped you before. So, you saw something, didn't you?" That had to be it. Although Zadkiel couldn't imagine what it could be. Only a few times had Camael displayed his emotions unwillingly and all those time had been more than deserving of it. This instance was not enough to shock him out of that stoic face of his, but there had to be something. Camael remained silent.

"So… out with it! What was so scary?" One time, a long time ago during the war on their home world, it turned out that Camael had foresaw that he would later splatter the subject of his fortune telling into a red paste. Not that it had made any difference to Camael, but there was no point in having the misfortunate soldier run around screaming like his lost his head in panic. He had lost it soon enough anyway.

"It was something… dark" Camael said solemnly. He still didn't stop walking through the city though. He appeared to be looking only directly forward, but Zadkiel knew that even the smallest action that occurred around him did not escape his notice. They had left the market and ducked into a dimly lit side alley, so they were now pretty much alone.

Now that they were alone, Zadkiel felt less constrained to keep his voice at a low volume. "They're going to someplace dark? That's it?" Zadkiel couldn't believe that was all of it. Not from Camael.

"No… it's more like… it's always with them."

"So, you didn't tell them that why? Unless… you're scared of the dark as well? Did it make the hairs on the back of your head stand up?" Zadkiel sniggered. Certainly wasn't going to make the hairs _on top_ of his head stand up. Camael, the poor bugger, didn't have any. The short grey hairs at the back were all he had.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that" replied Camael in his deep flat voice. Despite Zadkiel's best efforts, he had been unable to teach Camael a sense of humour.

"So why didn't you warn them?" So far, Camael had indulged several other people with use of his Second Sight, though of course he never let it seem to be more than a simple fortune telling. And normally, Camael was content with predicting meaningless things such as you will be married on this day, or your son will return from the war on that day, and so on. The kind of things that these lesser lifeforms found endlessly reassuring for reasons that Zadkiel didn't care to understand. So why had Camael refrained from this prediction?

"Some people won't believe things they don't want to hear."

"And were they 'some people'? Like that's an excuse." Camael should have known better than to think that answer would satisfy Zadkiel.

"Must I remind you that we are supposed to be at war with these people?" Camael said with a touch of annoyance.

Well, that was sort of true. The demons were certainly at war with the people of this planet. After the events of three hundred plus years ago, this was their first large push to try and conquer a humanoid planet. And as the Ten Wise Men were aiding the demonic forces, logically the Ten Wise Men were also at war with this planet. The fact that Zadkiel and the others planned to abandon the war as soon as they found a way to return to what remained of their homeworld meant they had no real interest in ensuring that the demons came out on top. They were only to be used for as long as it was helpful.

"Are we at war? Then why don't we then?! Huh?" Zadkiel spread his arms out. "Come on, let's do it! Let's raze this town, burn it to the ground, just the two of us! These lifeforms won't even put up a fight." Zadkiel made no effort to lower his voice, but a ragged homeless man in the alley gutter, the only one that heard them, started to make for the main street. In panic, or was it shock? It didn't matter really.

This was enough to make Camael stop. But he still didn't turn to face Zadkiel, and instead remained still and silent.

"Right. See. Just like with those four back there, not telling them about what would happen. Because we don't care about making their lives miserable. Leave that stupid nonsense to the others. Jophiel gets a kick out of it. If these inferior lifeforms get in our way, then fine, drop them. I don't mind. If they stay away, then I really don't care."

Finally, Camael had something to say, even if it was just a warning that Zadkiel knew all too well. "You want something other than to rule everything?" Camael tolerated these thoughts, Zadkiel knew, because he shared them somewhat. Not to the same degree, but more than enough to empathise.

"It's not everything it promised to be." In war, Zadkiel had killed a lot of people who he knew had no chance against him, and they knew it too. Some just gave up and let themselves die. Others fought on pointlessly, as Zadkiel killed them just as quickly. At first, he had revelled in his power, but now it was boring. And Zadkiel knew that the day after the Ten Wise Men conquered the universe, he would find that boring too. What was the point?

"I would mind your tongue around the others."

Zadkiel wasn't stupid enough to say these thoughts aloud in their presence. But as Camael and he weren't with the rest of the Sages, Zadkiel was only to happy to point that out. "Yeah? Well, as I see it, we're free and walking around and they aren't. So stuff them!" Due to their skills, Gabriel had chosen them to be among the first to be released when the opportunity had arisen. Leaving the warmongers and crazies of the Ten Wise Men trapped in their prison until a later opportunity to release the rest came.

"I wonder… do you really know what you want, Zadkiel? I don't think you would like it."

Where did Camael, that big lug, get off thinking he could say things like that?! "You know, I'll worry about what I want, so just you forget it. Where the hell she anyway? She knows chasing her like this makes me mad." _Philia, why do you do this to me?_

"Perhaps you should count yourself lucky in that regard."

Zadkiel ran his hand through his blue hair. "What are you saying?" Are you suggesting that I like following her around?

"I'm not suggesting anything. But for your own good, you should stop chasing her."

"Are you crazy?! Gabriel would eviscerate us!" It was their _job_ to chase her, a task appointed to them by Gabriel himself! What was Camael possibly suggesting?! That they disobey Gabriel?! Only fools in search of a shorter life would do such a thing. Or just a plain fool.

"Lie to yourself or feign ignorance then if it makes you feel better. I'm only trying to help."

"Fine, let's just keep going. I suppose this will take forever if you're scared of using Second Sight though." Camael should learn to keep his opinions to himself when they weren't wanted.

"I couldn't see well." Camael said suddenly.

"What?" Zadkiel asked, now less annoyed and more surprised.

"That's why I didn't answer them. I couldn't see their future. It was hazy."

That didn't make sense. There were only a few people that Camael couldn't use his Second Sight on. Philia was one. Which made it a great deal harder than it should be to search for her, but at least they could look at other people's futures to see if Philia was in them, even if these other people had no idea themselves of Philia's existence afterward. Another was her father. As head of the Ten Wise Men, he had probably made himself immune to Camael's Second Sight as one of his many methods to prevent himself from being challenged. The ability to hide from Second Sight was probably passed down from father to daughter.

If one among that group of lesser lifeforms could block it too, how could it happen? Zadkiel immediately thought of the possible similarity of long-eared girl with the one they were chasing "That one with the ears? You think she's blocked like Philia?"

"Even if she were Nedian, that still wouldn't explain it. It would be extraordinary if that were so."

That couldn't be possible. No Nedians could be out here. "If she really were Nedian that would be extraordinary enough by itself as it is. If you're going to have one miracle, you might as well have two." Then again, if she just happened to be blocked against Second Sight due to a quirk of fate, it could just as easily be any of the other three with her.

Well, whatever the case, it would have to wait. Zadkiel would like to meet them again, and find out which one was the blocker. But for now, finding Philia was still the only thing that mattered.

* * *

**Dictionary: Second Sight**

A power of foretelling the future possessed by Camael, one of the Ten Wise Men. It allows Camael to have a mental image of a future event by concentrating in the presence of the person he wishes to focus on. However, just what Camael sees is impossible to control. The events that he sees tend to be dramatic and heavily emotional to the person he is looking into, but the images may be highly fragmented. Anything he does see will eventually come true no matter what, but Camael has misinterpreted the visions before, and he is cautious about relying on them without corroborating evidence.

Through experience, Camael has found several people to be immune to this power, most notably Camael cannot foretell his own future. Several other special people have also shown immunity. While these people do tend to be more powerful than average, the reasons behind why Second Sight is blocked is not something that Camael knows. Despite these limitations, Camael has learned to use this power well as a member of the Ten Wise Men.


	18. C2 11 Practice

**Chapter 2 – 11: Practice**

**SD 366-06-07**

Claude and the rest of the group were sitting in a clearing in the forest by the roadside. After leaving Krosse, the party had made its way north in the direction towards Kurik. While they had hoped to hitch a ride on the road, there didn't seem to be anyone with a wagon going their way. Numerous people, both on foot and pulled by horse, were headed towards Krosse, but for those leaving the city, the group seemed to be alone. The road northward passed through a light forest, but the road was well maintained so they made a reasonable pace without difficulty. After spending the night in a small village they had passed, they had awoken early the next morning and started off again. And so it was early afternoon when they decided to take a rest on a clearing near the roadside.

"Well, everything seems to be going smoothly so far" said Celine. "I'm glad we didn't have to fight our way out of the city."

_You'd fight your way out of the city pass possibly hundreds of guards? _But Claude only said "Rena and I can use martial arts, we'd be fine I'm sure." And there was always the phase gun, but even that probably wouldn't help against an entire city, even if Claude was willing to kill soldiers who were only obeying orders. Which he wasn't.

"Oh, this sounds interesting" said Celine. "Both of you claim to be martial artists? Clyde doesn't know any of that."

"Hey, I hope you're not implying anything by that" said Clyde with a touch of indignation. _Identical looks doesn't mean identical skills._

"Of course not. Besides, you have me to blow away anything that comes near you."

"Bah, it was really nothing" said Rena, her hand waving the comments away. "I'm not really that great."

"So, where did the two of you learn how to fight? Lacuer is considered the place to be for swordsmen and martial artists, did you learn there?"

"Ah, well, I've never been to Lacuer myself" said Claude. "I first learnt from my mother, and then I trained for a bit in the military of my home country. Not much use for martial arts during ship combat-"

"You were in a navy?" asked Celine.

Once again, Claude had apparently implied something he shouldn't have. "Well, kind of. But not really." The others weren't fully satisfied by this, he could tell, but it would just have to be another thing he would leave unexplained. Claude quickly worked on changing the subject.

"But you know, I'm kinda interested to find out what the differences between our techniques are, Rena."

"Oh?"

"We could probably learn something from each other, don't you think?" It was always useful to learn thing about how other people fought, you never knew what you could incorporate into your own style.

"Well, I haven't practiced properly since we left Arlia. I guess now's a good time" said Rena.

"If you really wanted to learn the differences quickly, you'd practice spar" said Clyde.

"Hey, I thought you didn't know anything about fighting" said Rena.

"But I know what's more entertaining to watch" said Clyde, leaning back on a tree with a smile on his face and crossing his arms.

_A spar with Rena?_

_I suppose it couldn't hurt._

Rena hadn't objected to the idea yet, so Claude assumed it would be okay in her opinion to asktry it. "So, uh, Rena. Do you want to practice spar?"

"I guess that wouldn't hurt."

Celine and Clyde picked up their things and moved to the outer edge of the clearing, giving Claude and Rena plenty of open room to move in.

Claude was no heavyweight my any means, but he still had to have at least twenty kilos on his opponent. He was probably going to be the more stable one on the ground.

The pair of them faced off, waiting for the other to make the first move. They hadn't made any sort of discussion as to how hard they would go. Were the people of this world, and thus Rena, super-strong, or super-weak? Based on what he had seen, the people of this planet were average, but Rena was technically a different species, and could be different to everyone else. And there were some, such as Klausians, who far exceeded the average humanoid despite not looking particularly better off.

_Only one way to find out._ Claude gave a knowing smile to Rena.

Claude started with a slow hook punch to Rena's left, figuring that he could stop himself if even that was too much. But there was no need to worry, as Rena easily moved forward and to Claude's left while delivering a straight punch at Claude's head. Taking this as a clue to go harder, Claude dashed forward, using both his own and Rena's momentum to get behind her back.

"Ha, not bad."

"Not bad yourself."

"Yes, yes. You're both not bad. But remember, you're also supposed to be entertaining for us spectators" said Celine, clasping her hands to amplify her voice.

"Well Rena. Shall we give them a show?"

Rena smiled back at him. "I can heal any broken bones I'm going to give you, so why not?"

Claude gave a small chuckle to himself. "You're not worried about yourself?"

"Should I be?"

"Let's find out!"

Claude sprang forward, to which Rena responded by dropping low, clearly intending a sweep. Claude managed to jump in time to avoid it, and made a turn in the air to make sure he was still facing her when he landed. As he did so, he launched his own kick. Rena retreated backwards to avoid it, enticing Claude to advance again.

There was now a large tree behind Rena, preventing her from falling back any further. Claude swung a kick out to take advantage. In reply, Rena leapt into the air and kicked at the tree to push herself off and over Claude's head. A fancy and impressive looking technique, but it would take her longer to recover than Claude, who could simply turn around.

_That's pretty impressive. She's more athletic than I thought. I guess I can try a bit harder then._

***

Celine watched the teenagers move back and forth as they took turns in attacking and dodging each others blows. It was actually rather rhythmic in a way. And while it was certain they could both fight, Celine didn't think that if either of them would fight so smoothly and cleanly if they were facing a somewhat less visually appealing opponent.

"Who do you think is going to win?"

Clyde stroked this chin. "Depending on how you define 'win', maybe both of them."

Ah yes, there were lots of ways to define winning. It really depended on what you wanted to get out of it.

"Well then, how about a wager? I think Claude will end up with the upper hand."

Clyde raised an eyebrow. "And why's that?"

"Rena's better than I thought she would be, but I don't think she'll have the stamina to keep up with a man who has a face like that."

Clyde gave a small chuckle at the compliment. "Okay, and in that case, what are we waging?"

"I don't know yet" said Celine, keeping things intentionally vague. "I guess the loser will have to do something for the winner when we get to Kurik."

Clyde laughter was louder this time. "That sounds like something both of us would enjoy losing."

***

Rena aimed a high roundhouse kick to Claude's head, but somehow he had anticipated it, or just reacted to it fast enough, that not only did he manage to block the attack, but he actually grabbed her leg. And before she could do anything about it, he used that leverage to swing her around. Without any sort of foothold, Rena was unable to prevent herself from being swung around and into the ground.

It wasn't a very hard fall, and Claude made no attempt at an easy follow up, leaving Rena with plenty of time to decide her next move.

_The middle of a fight is no time to plan, it must be quick and instinctive, with no time given to allow a reaction._

Dashing forward quickly, Rena threw a quick series of three punches with the aim of making Claude block them and limiting his possible reactions. However, Claude instead chose to jump backwards into safety beyond her reach. Unfortunately, she had probably left herself at the disadvantage now, since Claude was already starting to move to the side, and she would be the one forced react.

Then, as Claude was leaping in order to prepare himself for his next strike, Rena saw an opening in his guard. Not a real opening in the terms of unarmed combat, as he was too far for Rena to strike him. But almost without thinking, Rena's hands made a gesture and a hovering green crest appeared, followed by a great flash of light. And when he raised his arms to cover his eyes, Rena swung her leg out and kicked him in the side. Caught off guard, Claude fell to the ground.

"Sorry!"

_Oh! I guess I shouldn't have done that! I hope he doesn't hold it against me._

Lying on the soft grass, Claude didn't move for a moment. Then, when he raised his head, he had some sort of mischievous grin on his face. "That is so cheating…" Claude said. Rena didn't know what he was thinking, but she felt that he was probably going to use it as an excuse to try a dirty trick of his own.. _Probably thinks it fair game._ Of course, her attempts at temporary blindness made that true.

***

_This is taking too long._

Actually, it probably wasn't that long, not more than ten minutes of Claude and Rena sparing back and forth, but there was still a way to go to reach Kurik, and Celine didn't want to have to sleep out in the open if they didn't make it to a town today.

But when Rena had used her to create a flash of light to stun Claude, which was when Celine knew that this battle was going too far. Neither of them had articulated ahead of time how intensely they were going to spar, and at this rate they would exhaust themselves so much that they would not make it to the next town before darkness. They might want to go at it all day, but they did have a journey to make.

Concentrating the power of flames through her outstretched hand and the red crest that appeared before her, Celine let a lowly firebolt fly out between the two fighters. The ball of flame was weak enough to dissipate before going near the trees, but strong enough to get their attention.

Naturally, it worked as expected. Claude and Rena both stopped what they were doing and instead looked at her instead, breathing heavily. Claude was the first to recover from the shock.

"Why the hell did you shoot a firebolt at us?!"

"Sorry. But I had to do something, and I didn't have a bucket of water at hand." Celine said dismissively. "Look darlings, if the two of you just want to grunt at each other all day, that's fine, but we really do need to get moving."

"You're exhausted" said Clyde.

Claude and Rena both seemed to realise just how tired they were, as they both collapsed and fell to the ground.

"Well, I'm just going to rest here for a bit, okay?" said Rena. Claude only continued his attempts to catch his breath.

"Did you have to say that?" Celine asked Clyde. "Maybe they wouldn't have noticed and we could have kept going." That couldn't happen, but it would have been nice.

"Ah, well. I guess we both win. Or both lose. We'll work something out in Kurik."

***

Rena was relieved when they eventually made it to the next town. A tiny place in the middle of nowhere barely worth naming as a village, the inn (which was also the only store and pretty much everything else that wasn't a farm) had only two rooms. Still, it would be better than having to sleep outside.

She and Celine were alone in the room right now, with the boys gone out looking to find something to eat. Rena didn't know how long that would take in a town like this, so there wasn't really anything to do but talk to Celine. However Celine was more focused on the book she was reading. A big heavy book with a complex crest pattern, but no words, on the cover. She sat in her chair with the book flat out on the small wood table across from Rena, and intently looked over each page. Still, Celine eventually realised that Rena was looking at her and wanted to talk. About what Rena didn't care, but it just seemed too weird for two people to be together and not talk.

"Rena, I still need to find out more about your healing abilities" said Celine. "I saw that you used light crest magic earlier. I didn't know you could do that also. What I what to know is, do you use your healing magic ones in the same way as your light magic?"

"I guess so. It's kind of instinctive. I know that doesn't help, since you'd need a crest if you wanted to do it, but-"

Celine's face lit up and she faced Rena at last. "Not at all Rena! This is actually good news"

"Really?"

"But of course darling. If you can use healing and light magic the same way, instinctively then there's a good chance that I could use healing magic using a crest in the same way that I could use light magic using a crest. Perhaps healing magic is simply a crest that we haven't discovered."

"You think so?" For everyone that Rena knew, except herself, using magic required the use of a crest. Some people were trained at it, some were naturally talented, and some were downright dangerously incompetent at it, but anyone could do it if they really wanted to.

"It is too early to know for sure, but I think that if we work together, we could develop healing crests that anyone could use. Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

"Well, of course it would be better if everyone had access to healing crests."

What Rena didn't say was that if everyone knew how to use healing crests, then Rena would no longer be quite so special. Something that Rena had wondered about for a long time. But she had never fully convinced herself either way whether it would be a good thing or not.

"Rena, one day I would like to take you to my hometown, Marze. You're looking for your parents, and Marze is as good a city as any to ask questions. I even have access to the locked library sections, so I'm sure we could find something about how to draw a new crest based on what we know. I told you I worked as a librarian didn't I? So naturally, I have access to all the sections that the public normally can't see. Although I suppose they might have fired me by now."

"Fired you? For what?"

"Well, rules state that no books are allowed to leave the library. They're far too valuable to risk that."

"And what did you take?"

"This is a book I borrowed from the Magical Resource Library of Marze" said Celine, indicating the book she was already holding. "Specifically, this book is the 'Book of Sealing', and is about using crest magic for, well, sealing things." Even though showing Rena the book confirmed that Celine must have broken some rule on not taking it, she didn't seemed ashamed at being forced to admit it at all. If anything, she seemed slightly proud of it.

"Sealing things like what?"

"Hmm… well, for example, you have heard of the Forgotten Denizens, haven't you?"

"Sure. They say that everywhere you go, that there are people you can't see. They can see you, but you can't see them." Of course, they also interacted with normal people somehow, but just how this was possible wasn't something that people had settled on. A long time ago, Rena had believed they had existed, but she was well past that stage.

"Well, that's sort of right" said Celine.

"Sort of?" Rena didn't really understand how you could be 'sort of' right in describing something that probably didn't exist, and didn't matter to anyone if they did.

"It's obviously very hard to say what exactly is right. But recently, I've been thinking about them a lot. About the method they use to be invisible."

"Are you saying that they actually exist?" Most people only considered the Forgotten to be a way of scaring small children in the same way the Seven Devils did.

"Yes. I'm sure of it. As the stories say, they are invisible, but not to your senses."

"Then what are then invisible to?" What _could_ they be invisible to?

"I'm not sure yet. But just look at the name we give them. Surely one's memory must be involved. And, this is just me, but I think it has something to do with sealing crest magic. I'm sure I'll find out one day how it really works, and until then…" Celine suddenly trained of and looked into the distance.

"Celine?" said Rena after a few moments. "Are you alright?"

"Wha?" said Celine as she returned to the present. "Sorry, forget about that. I was just thinking. Don't worry about it. We'll just get to Kurik, and then, well, we just see what happens."

* * *

**Dictionary: Symbology Types**

While there are many types of symbology, many of them can be classified into groups based on the classical elements: Fire, Air, Water, Earth, along with Light and Dark. These refer to the basic form of the magic however, and in the Federation, these are though to derive from the states of matter (Plasma, Gas, Liquid and Solid) or connotations of positive or negative energies. However, the classical element names are often used, simply because people find them easier to use (although they strictly don't match the scientific terms for states of matter, for example, there are states of matter not accounted for in the classical elements).

Combinations of elements within the same are also possible, as well as symbology that seems to defy easy classification within this scheme. This leaves many to wonder if the use of symbology types is a relic of classical ideas such as alchemy that should be abandoned by the scientific community.


	19. C2 12 An Angel in the Fountain

**Chapter 2-12: An Angel in the Fountain**

**SD 366-06-08**

As he stepped into Kurik, Claude took in the marvellous feel of the city. The city seemed much newer than Krosse had, with wider stone streets that could easily permit multiple several horse drawn wagons to pass simultaneously, and in almost every direction he could see there were new buildings going up. Just inside the entrance they already passed several stores selling unique antiques and foods than he hadn't seen before in Krosse. As he had expected, Kurik was a major trading port, and the people that travelled here from across the oceans brought not only their goods to sell, but also their customs and practices.

"Okay, Claude! The first thing I want to show you is that statue in the Central Fountain Square. The angel one I told you about, remember?" said Rena, grabbing Claude's arm. "Come on already!"

"Ah, Rena, we just got here-" was all Claude managed to say before was forced to follow. He looked back at Celine and Clyde for support, but they only shook their heads with expressions of amusement at Claude's situation.

"Rena, do you even know where you are going? I thought you hadn't been here before either."

"Of course I do! All central squares are in the centre of their city."

_What? No they aren't. _While that might seem rational, real life often demonstrated that just because something seemed rational didn't mean it would actually be that way. For example, it might be 'central' in ways other than location.

Much like Krosse, Kurik was also a very busy city, with people moving about everywhere, as well as wagons full of cargo such as freshly caught fish or fine spices and fabrics transported in from overseas. Occasionally, there was an important-looking carriage drawn by, allowing the wealthy to push through the throngs of people without having to touch them. These obstacles all served to slow down the group's progress towards the centre. But Rena was seemingly undeterred, and much more quickly than Claude had expected, they were in front of the fountain that Rena had been so eager to show off.

And Claude had to admit, it was actually very impressive. Three stories tall, and in gleaming brass-coloured metal, it was an impressive sight. A female human-like person, with great wings spread wide, it dominated the central portion of the city. It was placed in the centre of a shallow fountain, and at regular intervals, jets of water would spring up around it, which was something that seemed pretty amazing given the technological level of this planet. The square was located on a hill, giving the impression that the angel looked and protected over the ships located in the port to the west. Claude thought that any sailor coming in from the sea would surely feel safe on seeing such a majestic landmark looking over them.

Rena too, was fixed on the angelic statue. She must have felt proud that someone from her home town had made such an impressive display.

"So, what do you think?" said Rena eagerly.

"It's great!"

"Really?"

"Yes, really", and for a brief moment, Claude was confused until he realised that it wasn't him answering, it was Clyde, who along with Celine and just caught up. "Of course, _I've_ seen it before, but that doesn't take away anything from the spectacle."

"But there are other things to see besides this. The shopping here is incredible," said Celine. "And after getting something to eat, I wouldn't mind a bit of it."

Choosing one of the outside tables of a middle sized restaurant, 'The Captain's Table', Claude sat facing out into the street. He couldn't read the menu filled with strange symbols that made up Rena's native writing, so he decided to just let Rena order something on his behalf. Judging by the chalk drawings on the wall, it was probably going to be some sort of seafood, though some of the animals depicted in the drawings looked very different to those of Earth. There were fish and similar, but also images of creatures that looked like two balloons joined together with a thin body. Hopefully it would be just as edible as everything else so far, but Claude feared for the taste if that was what he got to eat. Celine was unconcerned about her food, and allowed Clyde to order on her behalf before taking out her book and beginning to read it again while they were waiting, her lips moving silently as she went.

Now that they were finally in Kurik and away from Krosse, they needed to plan the next part of their journey. He had planned to head for the Sorcery Globe with Rena, and possibly continue the search for her origins in that land. But what about Celine and Clyde?

"Are you going to Ell with us?" Claude asked Celine.

"Hmm… I don't know. There is supposed to be demonic war over there. But we haven't really heard anything about it. It can't be that serious in that case, can it?" Celine said. It was a good point. Claude wasn't aware of the politics between Ell and Krosse, but if Krosse had sent infantry like Allen as assistance, then they had to be somewhat friendly. In which case, any news of Ell in serious trouble should be more than rumours on this side of the ocean.

"But Allen was injured," said Rena.

"That's true, but what about the rest of his company? There were several men from Salva like Allen. If there were more injuries, they would have returned too, right?" _They would, right? They would have to. Right?_

"Maybe. I don't know who these other soldiers were, but I got the impression that Allen was the only one that came back."

But Allen did have that stone, generating the Vile Wind. That was proof that something demonic was going on in Ell. But just what that could be ranged from a single skirmish in which Allen was the unlucky one, to a full-blown war. The real truth was probably somewhere in the middle. But Allen's company couldn't have been wiped out, or he could never have come back in the first place. Which meant it couldn't be that bad.

"Anyway, I don't think you believe it to be that dangerous yourself, or else you wouldn't be taking Rena there," Celine said confidently. "So what I propose is that Clyde and I travel to Ell with you and we'll get married for good there."

"I can live with that, I like the symbolism of being in neither Krosse nor Lacuer for our marriage" added Clyde.

"I don't get it," said Rena. "What's so symbolical about Lacuer in that case?"

"Because Rozaria… well, it sounded good when I thought of it. And that's justification enough. I'll marry who I want."

_Really? Just like that?_ Claude didn't know the full situation on this planet, but on Earth in the past, people born of high status were expected to live up to that status. And in matters of the heart, they were expected to ensure their families good standing by finding someone 'appropriate' to that status. Even in today's age of space travel, Claude had heard of such problems. For example, the leading families of Tetragensis (the second most influential planet in the Federation), would expect their children to find love in someone near their own station. The problems on this planet surely could not be that much different.

It was something that Claude had wanted to ask the couple for a while, might as well do it now.

"Say Clyde. If you're really the prince, then-"

"What you do mean 'if'?" Clyde said sharply.

Claude didn't know what to say to that. He wasn't trying to imply anything. When he was finally able to speak again, he tried to pretend the previous words had not occurred. "What I meant to say was 'what is going to happen to the country and the Royal family _when_ you marry Celine?'"

"How so?" Clyde's face seemed to darken.

"I mean, your family, and the Royal court, and everyone in the country, will be expecting you to marry Rozaria. Wouldn't that have political problems between Krosse and Lacuer if you went through with this?"

"Do you think that I have not thought about this?" said Clyde, as he leaned in towards Claude. "That I had not considered the implications of _my_ decision."

"No! No, it's just… that…"

"Just what?"

"Well, you know…" said Claude.

"Humour me."

Claude did not very much want to do that. He looked to Rena for help, but she wasn't doing anything silly like opening her mouth. And after a few moments of silence, Clyde apparently decided that he didn't want to hear anymore anyway.

"Let's go Celine. I'm not going to order anything. I feel like shopping," Clyde said as he stood up.

Celine also stood. Her face was slightly more understanding than Clyde's, but only slightly. "Your concern is expected, but a person like you couldn't possibly understand the situation Clyde is in," Celine said, and without waiting for a reply, she followed after her fiancé.

They quickly disappeared out of sight into the crowd walking the streets outside the restaurant.

"What?" asked Rena, denying all responsibility for having to save Claude from himself. "Don't look at me; you're the one with the foot in their mouth. Really, what were you thinking?"

"Do you think they'll still want to come to Ell with us?"

Rena dismissed the question. "It'll be fine. I'm sure you and your twin can be buddy up again later. They'll be back, and anyway they left their stuff here," Rena said, referring to Celine's book and bag. She put the book in her side bag (it didn't fit easily, but she managed anyway), which she grouped with her own to make it easier to carry. "You can apologise then."

***

When one wanted to admire the best (and most expensive) fabrics from around the world, the High Seas Fashion is was the place to be in Kurik. And that was where Celine was now. She slowly glazed over the various dresses on show. Many were made from imported materials from Ell and the surrounding island nations, suitable for a wide variety of situations, although some were a bit heavy for this warm climate. It would be difficult to take any of these and keep them clean on this trip, but Celine still felt a small desire in the back of her head to buy one and save for later anyway. Clyde would call her silly to do that.

"There really is something strange about those two. They don't react to you they way I would expect." Celine knew the momentous choice that Clyde had made, in ways that Clyde himself probably didn't understand. And while she would be eternally grateful for his decision, there was also her part in it. Was she meddling in things that she shouldn't? Only the gods knew. It was too late to go back however, for both of them. And she wouldn't want to even if she could.

Clyde didn't say anything. A different topic then.

"Dear, what do you think about this one?" she said, holding a red and black evening gown against her body. It had a nice feel to the fabric, made of high quality satin. But she didn't think the colours would work that well under a lower light.

"If you say so," said Clyde, which made no sense and demonstrated that he was not really paying attention to the conversation or to the clothes around. Clyde was normally a pretty good dresser, as someone in his position might be expected, and could generally give a reliable opinion when Celine's own fashion sense failed (although that didn't happen often, in her opinion). Instead, she was just staring outside the window and into the sky.

"Look, I know Claude shouldn't have commented about you and Rozaria, but you have to expect these things. You'll be hearing far worse from people far less friendly than him about you and…"

Celine stopped herself as she went over what she had just said. Claude had done something that should not have been possible. Ever since Celine had met Clyde, she had gradually grown used to his position, and the roles of others such as his official fiancée Rozaria. People talked to them strangely, and it wasn't because they were royalty. And it would make a life with him very difficult, no matter how much she loved him. But maybe… no Claude and Rena were definitely the solution to her problem.

"Clyde, let's go back. I need to talk to Claude about you."

"If it's about what he said earlier-"

"It's not. But there are things I need to talk to him about, about our future."

***

"See, I knew they wouldn't be that long," said Rena, as she watched Celine and Clyde approach through the crowd from across the square. It was quite busy, and when she looked, she noticed that a particularly still group apparently listening to a familiar figure perched on the rim of the fountain.

"Hey, isn't that Philia?" asked Rena, pointing to the same girl that they had met in Krosse. She still had her long pink-dyed hair, but she was more tightly wrapped around in a simple white robe this time over her more elaborate clothes underneath, giving a strange contrast that Rena for some reason didn't think suited the small lady.

"You mean that girl that fainted on us? I think so," said Claude.

She appeared to be making some sort of appeal to the crowd that had gathered around her. However, despite the obvious pleading of Philia's hands and body, the crowd was thin and seemed disinterested.

"Let's go see what she's talking about," said Rena.

Rena made her way to the front of the crowd, which wasn't a difficult task since everyone else was only too happy to leave. Philia might be able to get people to start listening to her pleadings, but she couldn't keep them. By the time she got there, Celine and Clyde had realised what she was doing, and joined her and Claude there.

"Please! You have to listen to me! I can save you! But this town, Kurik, will soon be destroyed by darkness! You must listen to me, I know this will happen!"

The crowd only muttered disbeliefs in response, along with the occasional taunt or an unwelcome reference to a decay of the long-haired girl's mental state. Philia was obviously affected by this, her eyes seemed a little wet, but she continued giving her warnings anyway.

"Philia, what are you talking about?"

"Who knows my– Rena?" Philia seemed quite shocked, and she stuttered her words out. "W-why are you here already?"

"What do you mean 'already'?" asked Rena.

"You know, it's pretty impressive that you managed to get here so quickly before us, in that case," said Claude. "We came here pretty much straight away after meeting you."

Philia daintily leapt off of the fountain edge and onto the ground, before making her way from the fountain to a nearby café on the outer edge of the main plaza area. Rena and the others followed her to one of the tables where they sat, waiting for Philia to explain. It was only after seating that Rena realised that they were sitting at the very same table they were at an hour ago, where Claude had made the inflammatory comment to Clyde.

"It's an entity that speaks to me. Sometimes in my dreams, but very often in my waking hours too. It always knows where I am, and what I am thinking, as if it could read my mind, practically. And it told me that you would come here, and when you did the angel will fall and this city would disappear from this world. I know it as 'Dark Sphere' and–"

Philia continued to talk, but Rena suddenly lost track when Philia said that name.

_Dark Sphere._

The dream Rena had experienced before taking this journey with Claude to find her past and possibly the Sorcery Globe came back to her. Dark Sphere, the one in the dream. Where she had experienced a strange sensation of speaking to herself, and the horrible sensation of dying, again and again at the command of the Dark Sphere. She had wanted to forget the dream and believe it only a strange nightmare, but for Philia to also claim of meeting it. This was too much; it could not be a coincidence!

"Rena?" Claude said, waving his hand in front of Rena's face. "Are you alright?"

"I…" Rena realised where she was. And who she was speaking with. "Philia! You _must_ tell me everything you know about Dark Sphere.

"I said, 'Dark Sphere is going to destroy this city', when you arrived."

"And so I do" echoed a hollow voice from high above.

_That voice!_ Rena practically jumped out of her chair and to her feet, along with everyone else at the table and pretty much everyone else in the city that she could see. Everyone wanted to know who had made the booming and hollow voice over the city. She ran out into the main square, where everyone was in a state of shock, and it was totally quiet except for the cries of the occasional infant. Everyone older than a toddler was staring into the sky above the fountain in the centre of the city.

A perfectly round hole in the sky, the most perfect black that Rena had ever seen, contrasted itself against the cloudy sky behind it. It was impossible to tell for sure if it was close and small, or far away and huge by looking at the Sphere itself, but Rena could tell by the direction everyone else was looking it that it had to be close.

The quiet didn't last for every long however. First there was one scream from someone in the crowd, and almost instantly the rest joined in. People dropped everything and began running in every direction in fear. The loudest and most common word to be heard was "Demon!", but on top of that were the cries of people calling out for each other. Parents looking for their children in the confusion yelled out their names, and the town guard scrambling to reach their spears.

"Demon? I am more of an avenging angel, I should think. Ah. I have been waiting for this for a very long time. Someone here has stolen a very precious thing from me, and now I am having my revenge." Dark Sphere's voice was clear for everyone in the town to hear.

The figure began to warp in shape, becoming thinner and taller. The edges of the hole became less regular, but were still contrasted markedly against the sky. It wasn't until a few seconds after the shape had finished transforming that Rena recognised what it was. The Dark Sphere was no longer a sphere, but now the silhouette of a person. It was difficult to tell at first, but Rena imagined the person to have very long hair that billowed behind them. As if the terrible shadow was showing off.

"But before that, I see that there is someone spying on us. I am the only God this universe needs, so let's take care of that first."

A silhouette of an arm went out of the figure's side, and was held there for a second before it was quickly swung, pointing towards the fountain directly beneath it. And a moment later, a blur crashed from the sky into the fountain, and the centrepiece of the city exploded.

Rena shielded her eyes against the flash of light that happened, and when she felt brave enough to look again, the fountain was gone, replaced by a cloud of dust and smoke. Out of the top rushed a jet of water, spraying the place the fountain used to be. And behind it, there was something that moved. A miracle.

As the dust settled, Rena saw an angel.

Floating partway above the ground, the feminine figure was dressed in an elegant white full gown trimmed with gold, and spouting from her back, three pairs of wings, also in gold. She held her eyes closed, and her smooth face serene, as if she was not at all bothered by the abuse she and just endured.

The majestic figure slowly rose to face the Dark Sphere. And as it did so, Rena felt as sense of hope, knowing that the nightmare would soon be defeated. However, she was taken aback by the tone of voice uttered by the angel to do so.

"An irregularity has been detected interfering with the system. An immediate termination is recommended," she said, in a voice free of tonal change, and amazingly, without moving her mouth. As if she didn't care at all. And while it was recognisably feminine, Rena couldn't help but think that the voice was missing something else.

The sight of the angel had an effect on the crowd too. The panic died down somewhat, now that a savoir of the people had appeared. There were even a few people entering the square to witness the battle of good and evil that was about to occur, to counter the mass exodus that had just occurred.

"Thy will be terminated!" said the angel in a voice clear to everyone, and at the same time releasing a wave of green energy blades with her hands, aimed at the Dark Sphere. But shockingly, the attack had no effect, as the blades simply vanished into the darkness.

"How pathetic," said the Dark Sphere. "Have you finished embarrassing yourself yet?"

"Reinforcements will be required" replied the angel, calm as ever. Then the angel vanished in a puff of smoke. And less than a second later reappeared in a second smoke cloud. Now she had a confused look on her previously emotionless face.

"Error! Teleportation Code Inactive!"

Then angel raised itself above the ground and – to Rena's great surprise – she abandoned the people of the city.

"And don't expect me to let you fly away either!"

The shadow wildly flicked its arm, and only seconds later the ground shock and the remains of the fountain exploded in smoke, rubble and water for a second time. And when the dust cleared, Rena could see that the Angel had again been violently thrown into it.

How could this be? How could a servant of the gods themselves be so helpless? Where the demons of Ell truly so powerful that even angels were nothing against them?

While her motions were still nothing a person could hope to emulate, the angels movements as she rose where not quite as smooth and perfect as they were the first time. Rather, she seemed to jolt and stutter into a standing position, floating just above the surface of the destroyed fountain.

"Right now, I imaging we have more than a couple of witnesses around us, realising with the depths of their souls that I am very, very real."

With shut eyes, the angel stared at the empty person floating above the city. "Thy will of the proclaimer may not be denied," she said in a clear but lifeless voice.

Raising her arms, a great circle appeared and glowed above her. Rena didn't recognise it, but it was definitely going to be something powerful, if the size and brightness of it was an indication. The angel held it there, ready to strike, but Dark Sphere made to reaction that Rena could see.

"As if an unfeeling assembly line pile of wasted code like you could do anything against me. I have more important people than you to torment this day."

Before the angel could release the crest magic she had prepared, the shadow descended on her. Dropping through the crest (which dissipated instantly on contact), Dark Sphere fell onto the angel's head before she could move away. But rather than complete the fall to the ground, Dark Sphere stopped, part way through the angel's body. The top half of the angel disappeared inside the abyss.

Rena, along with everyone else that was watching, was frozen in shock, waiting to see if the angel would pull itself out. But, horrifyingly, the angel's lower dress, her legs and the tips of her collapsed to the ground in silence. And the rest of her was gone. Inside Dark Sphere, Rena knew it. The fact that the Dark Sphere had only swallowed half the angel, rather than all of her, made the event even more terrifying. This nightmare was real.

"If that stupid man didn't want me around, he shouldn't have saved me. Everything is mine!" screamed the Dark Sphere in triumph, arms high above its head.

Everyone in the square that was left took this as a sign to flee. The soldiers of the town abandoned their posts, clearly deciding that if the god's servants weren't up to the task, then they wouldn't fair any better.

"Rena?! What are you doing?!" Claude yelled at her. "Come on!" And without waiting for anything further, he grabbed her armed started to drag her away. This broke Rena out of trance state, and she joined him. Without thinking she grabbed Philia and pulled her along, the three of them following Celine and Clyde. She didn't know where she was going, but she had to get away from here.

But they barely reached the edge of the square before Rena heart jumped in her throat, and she tripped over in an effort to stop herself. Dark Sphere had somehow appeared right in front of them!

"You should be more cautious about the company you keep, Philia. I guess I'll have to do something about that."

* * *

**Dictionary: Kurik**

The second largest city in the country of Krosse on the planet Expel (as of SD366), it serves as the major trading port between Krosse and Ell, as well as several smaller nations and city states scattered through the surrounding islands. As such, the city is alive every day of the week with sailors entering and leaving port, and with merchants imported and exporting goods of every type.

The city is constantly undergoing redevelopment, as it is home to wealthy trend-setters. And on top of that, it is the first tourist destination for anyone travelling the continent of Krosse arriving from Ell. Of course, such wealth attracts a darker side as well, but provided one stays in populated areas and keeps a sharp lookout, one can easily avoid the worst elements and not have to deal with anything beyond a simple pickpocket.


	20. C2 13 Confronting the Abyss

**Chapter 2-13: Confronting the Abyss**

**SD 366-06-08**

Before today, Claude hadn't believed in angels, so the shock of seeing one being crushed before him by something that was best described as a 'non-existence' in the world of existing things, was not something he knew how to react to. His whole body felt paralysed in indecision, he didn't know if he should run, didn't know where to run, couldn't remember _how_ to run.

He was outnumbered largely by those that had made up their minds, the thousands of citizens of the city. The entire population of Kurik was out, screaming to flee the city. Mostly by foot, they were emptying every building with cries of panic, leaving everything behind except their families (and sometimes even those, Claude was sure) in an attempt to escape both the remains of the fountain square and Kurik as a whole. The city guard had apparently given up any thought of opposing the new threat; nearly all dropped their spears and joined the masses. Undoubtedly, the mere fleeing would cause casualties, as people trampled each other in attempts to get away. Without lifting a hollow finger against the people, the enemy had probably caused more than several deaths among the innocent.

So perhaps it was lucky that Claude was not running. By standing still, along with Rena, Celine, Clyde, and the mysterious and prophetic Philia, they avoided being tripped and crushed. Not that there were many people left in fountain square now.

Just when Claude's mind finally worked around the impossibility of the situation and decided to run with everyone else, the impossible creature dropped from the sky right in front of the group, blocking the quickest path out of the city. And then, it spoke in a hollow voice that seemed to come from every direction at once.

"Philia! There can be no compromise... do not accept anything less than perfection! All the flawed dreams you have are but merely practice. But you must throw them away, for the real thing beckons to you!"

_A Black Hole. A _living_, _moving_ and _speaking_ Black Hole!_ Obviously not exactly like a real black hole, or he'd be spaghetti stings from the gravity at this proximity, but Claude didn't know what else to call it. It was impossible, just impossible. But here it was, standing right in front of him. Still shaped in the form of a humanoid, Claude didn't know how to react.

_Wait, is this what father was speaking about?_

Long ago, his father had tried to tell him about a powerful entity that he had encountered. He never went into much detail, saying that it was pointless and possibly even dangerous to say too much. Only that the entity had been sealed from all public Federation records, and that if Claude himself were to ever encounter a dark form that he called Dark Sphere, then Claude should run. Run far, far away.

_Father, what is this thing?_

But there was no time to think about what it was now; the first thing to do was to take the advice he already had. Philia was, for whatever reason, just standing in front of Dark Sphere, not doing anything. And while Claude didn't know much about Philia, this seemed like a rather silly thing to do, given what they had just witnessed with the angel. Perhaps she was frozen in terror (and Claude couldn't blame anyone for that), but not was not the time to fix that problem. Claude grabbed Philia's upper arm and didn't wait for her to react, instead pulling her along.

_Dad, he would know what to do._ Claude knew that if his father had ever faced this beast, then he would have figured out a way to get rid of it with ease. He was still alive this day was proof of that. But Claude wasn't his father. Claude would have to make a second rate attempt and hope he didn't flail into disaster. He couldn't run more than a few steps however, as Dark Sphere appeared in front of him again, forcing him to a halt. His father had told him to run, but just how was he going to do that?

The endless abyss seemed more focused on Philia however. Philia retreated to the relative safety of surrounding herself in a space formed by Claude's group as defence against Dark Sphere's words.

"Why do you run, Philia? I am your future. You surround yourself with traitors and cancers, but it is I that you should choose to be with! I am the one that has the power that you seek!"

Philia replied in a voice that was barely heard over the screams of the city's fleeing population. "S-S-Stay away! My father…"

Dark Sphere didn't let her finish however, again the voice coming from everywhere. This time there was a hint of humour in the voice too, finding joy in the impotence of Philia's previous reply. "Might you refer to the one whom you love or the one whom you hate? He – both of them – may be above the rest, but even they are but a speck compared to me. To us. I am trying to show you Philia. That you must choose your destiny. A destiny with me!" The dark humanoid shape struck an arm out into the air to demonstrate its point.

Claude could feel Philia cringe behind him, but she didn't make any move out of the protection of Claude and his friends. Claude didn't know what Rena, Celine and Clyde thought of this situation, but he suspected that whatever it was, they had become stuck to Philia for the time being (or Philia had become stuck to them). They had to work in a group, show solidarity, against the dark monster. Claude hoped that it could work.

"You won't choose to follow me now? Fine." Dark Sphere didn't sound even slightly disappointed by the rejection, which Claude thought was possibly even creeper than the alternative. "I have other reasons to be here anyway. People to take revenge upon, you understand? I do hope you won't find this too paradox-inducing, but there is only one way to find out who is in control. Now, look out there, upon the ocean."

To the east, out in the ocean, Claude could see part of the ocean start to rise up. And considering how far away in the ocean it was, that swelling had to be massive for it to be clearly visible at this distance.

A tsunami! As if Dark Sphere by itself wasn't reason enough to flee!

Dark Sphere changed its shape again, returning to the perfectly spherical shape that it had to begin with. Still without any texture, it only seemed an endless abyss in the air.

"Philia, do you remember what I said about this town?"

Claude felt Philia shiver behind her, and recalled what she had said earlier. Dark Sphere was going to destroy the town. And after seeing the ease with which it had defeated the angel and its apparent invulnerability, Claude had no doubt that Dark Sphere could do it.

_How can such a thing exist?_

There was a scream from behind Claude that he didn't recognise. And then a lot of screams, coming from the city's populace. But they were coming closer, instead of moving away as they had just been. And as Claude turned around to look at them, he found that the screams were starting to come from _above_ him. The people of the city were being pulled through the air! And not just the people, there were wagons, bricks, animals, and trees with them. All were lifted helplessly into the air, dragged round and round Dark Sphere into a wide circular disc high above the city. Faster and faster they went around, and there was nothing Claude or anyone else could do to stop it. It seemed that everyone in the city but their small group was in there. And to the east, there was still the tsunami approaching. Death from all sides.

Claude even felt the ground underneath start to rise up, one stone at a time, although Claude himself felt nothing at all. Dark Sphere could control individually what to attract. He dodged the stones that once made up the pavement, falling over Clyde in the process, who fell over Celine, who pulled down Rena and Philia, and the five of them ended up in a pile on the ground.

"Stop it!" Rena yelled, her voice almost entirely overwhelmed by the wind and the screaming of the town.

"You have NO RIGHT to tell me what to do!" the monster raged, and for a brief moment, all the people flailing about in air were released from the monster's grip and started to fall to the ground. From that height, only a lucky few would survive the impact with the ground. But at the last moment, they were picked up again, seemingly by the invisible strings Dark Sphere was using before they had a chance to land and were again forced into the precession, dancing around the black centre.

Just has Claude had got himself back to his feet, helped by Clyde, he felt Clyde's arm jerk suddenly, and by instinct Claude grabbed it tightly. Clyde was now being pulled into the air himself!

"No!" Celine yelled, and she also grabbed onto his other arm. Clyde was now fully in the air, feet pointing upwards to the black hole, and only Claude and Celine's hold kept him from being dragged away. Rena also tried to help, but there was no more of Clyde to hold.

"Rena!" Claude yelled, trying to keep a focus on holding Clyde. Clyde expression of was one of panic, and it was all that Claude could see. "Get my phase gun! Try shooting it!" It seemed hopeless, he expected that the weapon would do nothing against this opponent, but what else was there?

"What?!" she replied. Claude wasn't sure if she misunderstood, or simply couldn't hear.

"The sword of light!" he yelled. At least, she would know what he meant if he said that.

"How do I use it?!" Rena yelled back, fumbling with the weapon after drawing it from Claude holster.

Claude didn't want to risk letting go of Clyde to use it himself, the pull seemed to be getting stronger, and he was sure that if either he of Celine let go, the other would be unable to hold Clyde.

Claude looked over to see Rena fumble with the weapon, and behind her, he could see the tsunami approaching ever closer, and above them, the swirling masses of people. Even if Dark Sphere left them alone this instant, there was no way they could escape the tsunami. Rena appeared not to notice that, instead panicking over Claude's weapon, her fingers crawling all over it, trying to make it work. "How do I use it?!"

_Of course she doesn't know how to use it._ His weapon (like all in the Federation) had safety measures to prevent accidental discharge. Rena had the weapon pointed in the right direction, toward the black abyss, but she wasn't able to do anything with it.

"Time's up. I've waited a long time for my revenge, and let me just say, this feels _so good_." Dark Sphere clearly enjoyed the last few words, which Claude found terrifying.

And then Clyde's arm jerked again, and Claude lost his grip on his friend. At the same time, Celine was also picked up from the ground, and before he or Rena could do anything, the couple was dragged into the air, joining the masses of townspeople and rubble circling Dark Sphere.

"Clyde! Celine!" both he and Rena yelled simultaneously.

Dark Sphere was only interested in talking back to the woman huddling behind them however.

"Remember this, Philia, and learn. I do this all for you."

The flying disc of people and buildings collapsed and everything in it fell into the black hole. And then the tsunami overcame them.

***

_Rena…_

_If you can remember what is hidden, you will understand._

_If you gain the wisdom to understand, then you can help us both._

_Please remember for both our sakes._

"Rena?!" said a voice. The questioner sounded worried, but just hearing it was enough to make Rena feel reassured.

Slowly, Rena opened her eyes, giving herself time to adjust to the bright sky. Wasn't it cloudy before? The sky was perfectly clear and blue now, and a gentle wind moved past her face.

"Claude?"

"You're okay!" said Claude, first giving her a tight hug, and then slumping back in relief. "I was really worried there for a while." His eyes were ringed in red, his clothes damp and dirty.

Given what had just happened, this was probably understandable. Dark Sphere's attack on Kurik had...

"Where are we?" Rena asked as she looked around, properly taking in her surroundings. She was sitting on a patch of grass that overlooked the sea. She could hear the waves gently crashing against the shore nearby and the breeze through the air. To her left, there was a large bay that she didn't recognise with steep, short cliffs around it in a very circular shape. But she was just in Kurik during the attack. Did Claude carry her out here? Her clothes were still damp, like Claude's. The tsunami would have been the cause of that.

"I don't know where we are," Claude said.

"We're in the Kurik region," said a third voice, which Rena recognised as the girl they had met earlier. Rena stood up to face her. Philia, much unlike Rena herself, was still neat and tidy in appearance, her pink her falling behind her without fray, and her expensive clothes still smooth and maybe even dry. How she had managed such a thing was not something that Rena could even begin to guess at. "You should know that, since that's where Dark Sphere attacked us."

"But… where are we exactly in the Kurik region? We must be pretty far from the town itself if we can't see it," said Rena, as she looked up and down the coast. But in both directions all she saw was a peaceful ocean.

"Kurik is over there," said Philia, pointing towards the bay for a moment. "But Kurik doesn't exist anymore. Dark Sphere consumed it."

Kurik is gone?! That that wasn't all.

"Wait… where is Celine? And Clyde? And..." said Rena, her voice increasing pitch as she spoke.

"They're the same as Kurik. They don't exist."

"They're…" Rena could hardly bring herself to finish her horrible thought, but Claude did it for her.

"They're... dead?" Claude said, clearly having trouble getting the words out.

"They're not dead. They just… don't exist. But not existing is just as permanent for us. Dark Sphere consumes things, and they no longer exist in this world. There's no way to get them back."

"Just like a Black Hole" mumbled Claude. Rena didn't know what a Black Hole was, but the name described something much like Dark Sphere. And Rena could tell from Claude defeatist tone that he had given up any thought of seeing their friends again.

The nightmare! Rena's mind flashed back to the nightmare she had about Dark Sphere, the night before leaving Arlia with Claude. At the time, she had dismissed it as a crazy dream, an excuse her mind played to convince herself not to leave Arlia, a manifestation of her uneasiness about the journey. But it was clear now that such was not the case. The nightmare was real. And, by not saying anything about the nightmare earlier, was Rena herself to blame?

"No, this isn't your fault," said Philia, and Rena realised that she must have said her last thought out loud. "Dark Sphere has told me thousands of times of tragedies that would happen, and you weren't there to cause or prevent any of them. And any knowledge you have would not help. Not against Dark Sphere. Nothing can. I came here because Dark Sphere told me that the destruction of the town would come, and I thought I could do something. Somehow save everyone by getting them to leave… I don't know." Philia shock her head, and seemed on the verge of crying.

"Will... will it come back?" Claude asked.

Philia turned away, and replied in a sad voice. "Do you think yourself special enough for Dark Sphere's attention?"

Claude didn't answer. Rena was about to say no, but then, what was her nightmare about?

"I'm the one that Dark Sphere wants," Philia said. "You're nothing in comparison, which makes you the lucky ones."

Lucky? How is _this_ lucky? Celine and Clyde are gone "Philia. Before we started this journey, I had a dream about Dark Sphere-"

"Rena!" Claude said in shock, but Rena continued ignoring his slack jawed expression.

"- and I want to know why?" Rena finished.

Philia still didn't look at her. "Dark Sphere can't be reasoned with. If you did something to cause upset, or if you have something that Dark Sphere wants, then you'd best be prepared to be followed till the end of time. If I were you, I'd pray that such was not the case."

_Cause upset?!_ That was ridiculous. Rena had never seen or heard of Dark Sphere before this journey, let alone cause offence to the horror. What had she decided to do on this journey that could attract Dark Sphere? Rena could think of nothing.

"And how did we survive that anyway. Dark Sphere was attacking and the tsunami" asked Claude.

"I guess you weren't taken because you were with me?" said Philia now facing Rena, but she shook her head to indicate that she was uncertain. "I have known Dark Sphere for many years now."

"And it's never harmed you in that time?"

Philia voice contained a slight hint of anger, and her face – just for a moment – went red before it returned to the sad face she had before. "Never harmed me? Dark Sphere has hurt me more than you could possibly imagine. My heart aches when I remember what Dark Sphere took from me."

And what was that? Family? A normal life? What else? Rena thought Philia was being deliberately obtuse on this point, but that was understandable. They didn't know each other that well, she might not want to reveal the truth to someone she barely knew.

"So, what do you plan to do?" Philia asked after a few minutes of silence.

"I think… we should go to Marze," Rena said, her hands running over the cover of Celine's Book of Sealing. The only thing they had left of her. "I mean, someone, that is, we, need to tell her family. It's only a few days walk from here."

"And Krosse again afterwards?" asked Claude. "We'd have a lot of trouble there."

While informing Celine's family would be hard enough, breaking the terrible news to the royal family of Krosse about the loss of Clyde – no, Prince Clauzer – would be nigh impossible. And she would have to do it alone, since they wouldn't believe her while standing next to a man who was identical in appearance to the dead prince. They'd take him in, and accuse Rena of kidnapping or something.

"Do you need to say anything?" Philia asked, as if she was reading Rena's mind. "If they would believe nothing you could say, then there's no reason in saying anything."

Logically, that made sense, but Rena knew that it couldn't be right to leave it that way.

"Claude?" Philia moved closer to him, clasping her hand in front of her while looking at the ground, rather than make eye contact. "Could… could you take me with you?"

"Of course you can come with us! If you really want to. And I know Rena will want to talk with you as well." Given the situation, now wasn't the time to ask about Rena's heritage, but she would definitely that the opportunity while they were on the road.

Claude looked at Philia again, more serious this time. "But Philia, it could be dangerous. We're investigating the Sorcery Globe."

Philia moved right next to Claude. "I'm not worried. From what I saw before, I have faith that I'll be very safe near you, Claude." Rena turned to head, only for moment though, almost as an afterthought it seemed. "You too Rena."

"Oh, well, of course" Claude stammered slightly while scratching the back of head. Rena was sure that his big head was tinged red at the compliment.

"I suppose we should get going," said Rena quickly. "We don't want to be caught here at alone tonight." An entire city bull of people, living their own lives, had vanished in front of them, and Rena didn't want to stay here any longer for any reason.

* * *

**Dictionary: Black Hole**

A region of space with gravity so intense, it causes a massive curvature of space-time that even light cannot escape. As a result, it is impossible to determine what occurs inside them. Black holes are generally formed from the supernova and death of extremely massive stars. In space, they are normally invisible against the black background, but can be detected by the way they affect other nearby matter. For example, a black hole near another star will draw matter away from the star feed on it. This matter will rotate around the black hole rapidly, forming a flat disc which emits high energy radiation that can be detected.

Anything that enters a black hole is lost forever, and they cannot be destroyed in anyway except through waiting, although the time required for a black hole to decay is many billions of times longer than the current age of the universe, depending on its size.

Dark Sphere shares many qualities with a black hole, but no black hole has ever been able to speak, or selectively control its gravity, attracting some objects and not others. The true nature of Dark Sphere and why it shares these properties with black holes is currently unknown.


	21. C2 14 Reunions in Marze

**Chapter 2-14: Reunions in Marze**

**SD 366-06-10**

The next town Rena, Claude and Philia reached was a small one with scattered single story houses made of wood. It was the middle of the day, and most people would find the gentle wind and warm sun to make a pleasant day. This town was quiet, especially in comparison to the bustle of Kurik. It was the kind of place where nothing much happened for generations of families that worked farms. And where the people could grow and live uneventfully. It had only one hotel, which also served as the only tavern, and only the basic stores selling what was locally grown.

This place was not like Kurik. And people were not like Celine and Clyde.

Rena tried to put those thoughts out of her mind, but how did one recover from that? Would they ever be the same again?

As they walked through the main street (made obvious by the fact it was the only one made of stone, all the others were only tracts in the dirt), they passed a small bakery whose store faced outward, hoping to get the attention of travellers like themselves. And it appeared to work, since Claude stopped in front of the wooden building.

"What is it Claude?"

"Oh. I want to try something. What kinds of cake do you like Rena?"

"Cake? But you can't even talk to the owner."

"So? I want to try it. We've had some pretty horrible things happen to us, and…" Claude stopped and looked away. He didn't mention them, but Rena could tell he was thinking about Celine and Clyde. After a moment, he faced her again and continued. "... and I was thinking that we need something to make us feel better."

While they were standing there in the middle of the road, a woman with two young sons in tow wandered past. They seemed to be just another family, dressed in practical clothes for farming. A quick look of shock appeared on Philia's face as they passed, and she stole a quick look at them.

"Philia, what is it?" asked Rena.

"I… I think one of those boys just threw a stone at me."

"Threw a stone? Why would they do that?" Rena looked down the road to see the mother and the boys continue onward. Neither of the boys was looking back at them. One was skipping along, and the other was clinging to his mother's wide dress. Neither boy looked back at them, so Rena couldn't tell which one, if either, would be satisfied at their prank.

"It's not major thing to worry about I sure. All boys can be mischievous," Philia said nervously.

"Philia, you shouldn't excuse their behaviour like that. You should have said something," Claude said.

"Yes, Claude, perhaps your right. I'll go do that now." And with surprising speed, Philia started to walk off after the family, who had since wondered off into a general store. "Just ask Rena what I like," she said with her voice raised, but not quite shouting. Philia never shouted from what Rena could tell.

Philia quickly disappeared out of site, leaving Claude and Rena alone, wondering what had just happened.

"So, what was I going to buy again?"

Rena thought back to the time when she had first met Philia. Back then, in Krosse, when everything was much easier, and Rena had her first hopes of discovering who she was. She still had them, but she wanted to wait until they were finished talking with Celine's family in Marze, and possibly in Clyde's family in Krosse too, before worrying about her own.

"Huh. Well, I like shortcake. Philia told me she doesn't though, she prefers things like pastries."

But Philia was also linked to Dark Sphere. Unwillingly, but she linked. Philia being here made things more complicated. It felt somewhat like she was an exchange for Celine and Clyde. No, that really wasn't a fair thing to say.

"Well, okay. Here we go" said Claude has he charged off to the bakery. Rena could she him through the store window, pointing at various items on the shelf, and the proprietor was obviously bemused by the fact that Claude was apparently mute.

Philia returned before Claude was finished. She looked pretty much the same as before, neither showing an expression of disappointment nor success.

"Philia, how did it go. Did one of them really throw a stone you?"

Philia held her hands close to her heart, and looked away as she spoke. "I found who was responsible, and they know what they did. It's not really important though, sometimes I wonder why I make such a fuss."

"Don't say that. It's important to know how to assert yourself when you need to."

"I know that Rena. It's just that…"

"Just what?"

"Nevermind. I promise you I'll try to be assertive later," Philia said, ending the conversation with Claude's return.

"Okay, it was a bit easier than I thought it would be. Really not a problem at all. Of course, I hope I didn't get ripped off paying for this. So do you want to guess what I got you?" Claude was hiding the cakes behind his back, which was kind of pointless, since Rena knew that she had seen shortcake amongst the bakery's limited selection.

"Not really," Philia said, hand over mouth to make a poor attempt at hiding her giggling. "I already know."

"I want to say something" Claude said, now more serious. He stood straight and tall, faced his eyes forward and began. "When we started this journey, I honestly didn't understand what I was doing. I still don't in more than a few ways. At the beginning, things were pretty easy for us, and perhaps that lulled me into a false sense of security. But I know understand that journeys like this one can have some terrible consequences." Claude paused, and Rena knew it was a moment to reflect on Celine and Clyde. "But at the same time, I'm not going to quit. I'm going to get home, and find Rena's parents, and maybe with the help of the Federation, we can even find out something that can deal with Philia's problem." He didn't say it, but he was obviously talking about Dark Sphere. "So, I thought I would try to just take on a small trial at first, buying these without anyone understanding me." Claude now pulled out the cakes from behind his back. He handed Rena the shortcake, Philia some sort of fruit tart, leaving himself with a bread with icing. "I know it's not much…"

Rena was waiting for Claude to finish speaking before giving her thoughts, but Philia apparently couldn't wait and stole her chance with pretty much the same words that Rena was thinking about. "…but you thought we should affirmation to continue in the face of hardship. That's wonderful Claude, don't you think so too Rena?"

"Ah, yes. It's definitely wonderful." There wasn't anything else that Rena thought she could really add.

"Wow, you two make it some like so much more than what it was. I'm going to get a big head from this."

***

They had decided that instead of pushing onto Marze, they would spend the night here instead. Philia had said she had travelled this way before, and that they would then reach Marze tomorrow morning travelling on the road over the grass plains. This would then give them the day to decide how to find Celine's family. Claude thought this reasonable. He wasn't going to do the talking, but tomorrow was going to be awkward to say the least.

Since there was only one inn and tavern, it made it an elementary choice about where to eat and where to stay. Much like the bakery, a tavern in such a small town couldn't be expected to have a wide variety of food available. So for dinner they ate a vegetable soup. Not the best meal Claude had ever had. In fact, it was probably down the bottom somewhere, the vegetables were undercooked, there were only about three types in it, and it seemed to be lacking just about any herbs or other flavourings. Claude therefore ate slowly, but this allowed the soup to cool somewhat, which made it worse. But there was really nothing to be done about it. They were the only guests in the town that night, so they had the dining room to themselves.

"What kinds of beds to you think they have here?" Claude asked, for the sake of making conversation. "It's been a long time since I slept in my own bed. I kind of miss it." His won bed, back on the Calnus, was a pressure sensitive contour bed, designed to specifically to shape itself around the users body. On this planet, he had to make do with beds filled with hay mostly. It was quite the downgrade. And a lot less hygienic.

Rena probably thought the question of was silly. She would be only used to one type. And so she would be quite happy with a bed made of grass. He didn't really know what Philia would want. What kind of background did she have anyway? He wanted to ask, but he also knew that Rena wanted to ask more than anything, since Philia was the only person they had so far found that was presumably of the same origin. And until Rena felt ready, Claude was a bit uncomfortable approaching the subject of Philia's origin.

"Do you think they have three beds in a single room, or will we have to get two rooms?" Philia said. "We should probably find out soon."

Rena, who had seemed to have little problem with the meal, had already finished and took the comment as a suggestion. "I'll go and ask the owner about the room for tonight then."

After Rena left the table for the back room, Claude noticed that Philia was only picking at her soup slowly, seemingly enjoying it even less than Claude was.

"Philia, are you okay?"

Philia kept her downcast eyes focused on the soup, slowly moving her spoon around without eating. Her soup would be even colder than Claude's by the time she finally got around to eating it. "Yeah, it's nothing."

It clearly wasn't. Claude leaned slightly towards her, waiting for Philia to admit to what was bothering her. It took another half-minute of soup stirring before she spoke up.

"She probably just misheard me. I actually really like shortcake."

"Oh."

"But don't worry about that. It's not important. I really like this too. And anyway, I'm just happy to see you take the effort, it really does make one feel better."

"Well, I'm glad then."

"Yeah. A lot of terrible things happen in this word. But even so, knowing that there are people like you who try to make the world a better place. I was really impressed earlier."

"I think you're going a bit overboard there, Philia," Claude said. Really, he hadn't intended for it to change the world or anything, just to try and be a bit of a morale boost.

"I know. You say you're just looking for a way back to your home. But it's clear to anyone to see what kind of man you are."

Claude started scratching the back of his head. It was a bit embarrassing, but Philia didn't seem to notice. "Ah, that's really very kind of you."

"No less than you deserve."

***

Rena couldn't see anything when Philia first claimed that there was a group of people in a field outside Marze. They were still a long distance away, and how anyone could claim to see a castle, let alone a crowd. But Philia was confident, and as they continued walking onward, she was eventually was proved right. Rena thought that Philia's blue eyes must be unequalled throughout the world to do that.

When they got close enough, they realised that there were actually a few people lying on the ground, in what appeared to be the remains of a battle. Around them, people stared and pointed at the bodies, but did not offer much care. And a few were carrying shovels; together these were an ill omen. Instinctively, Rena ran ahead, leaving Claude and Philia to run after her carrying their things. Surely they would have taken care of the injured already, perhaps transporting them away from here, but Rena knew her powers could help more than bandages.

Seeing her approach, one of the men in the group broke away to intercept her. He raised in hand as a symbol to stop, and Rena complied, but waited until the other caught up before asking what was going on.

"I'm sorry, but I must ask that that you stay away." The man was of average height, and a bit more than average weight, with creased lines visible on his forehead, distorting the crest he had tattooed there. So he was a crest magician then, apparently of above average wealth, given the fine cut of his white robe. His blond hair was short but also neat to match his fine full length robe.

"I'm a healer. Surely I can help" Rena said. She didn't know how they would react since according to Celine, there were no such healing crest users, but this was something she would have to worry about later.

"Your offer is kind, but there's no one to help. We found these soldiers in on the side of the forest, already dead."

Claude looked like he was about to ask something, before stopping in the realisation that they would not understand him.

"Who killed them? And why are they here?" asked Rena.

"These soldiers. Their uniform is blue and gold, so they are from Lacuer," Philia added.

"Tch. We've no idea at all why they are here. I suppose we are on a possible path between Krosse and Harley, but if they were travelling between the capital and the port to Lacuer, there are faster ways. At any rate, we certainly didn't receive advance notice that a troop of soldiers would be passing through!"

"So, what are you going to do?" Rena asked.

"No idea. Anyway, we've got bigger problems than that right now."

_Bigger problems than a dozen dead soldiers?! What kind of place is Celine's hometown?_

"What in the world could possibly be a bigger problem than this?" Philia asked.

The man looked at them carefully, Rena could tell that he was trying to make up an opinion on the group. "Well, you don't look like bandits, and you came from the wrong direction anyway. If you're really interested in finding out, we're having an emergency meeting for the entire city in Marze this afternoon. You and any other travellers are welcome to attend, especially if you're any sort of fighter or mercenary. We'll probably be hiring added protection."

_I wouldn't have thought that we _look_ like mercenaries._

"We'll be there," said Philia quickly, deciding the issue before Rena could barely think about it.

"Philia, we don't even know what this meeting is about."

"All the more reason to attend." Philia seemed decided. Still, there probably was no harm in finding out. Whatever it was, it had to be very serious.

"Very well, I hope that you can help us." The man extended a handshake. "By the way, I should introduce myself to you, since I will see you there. My name is Elgas, I'm one of the Elders of Marze."

"Oh, I'm Rena, this is Claude…" Claude waved his hand, since he couldn't speak. "… and this is Philia." Philia made a deep curtsy, holding her dress out wide as she was introduced.

"Right. Well, the city is that way," Elgas pointed to Marze, although it was hardly necessary, the town was clearly visible from out here. "Please mind yourself, the people are rather… agitated right now. Still, I hope you have a pleasant stay. If you will excuse me." Elgas then turned his attention back to the people running about the field, acting to calm and direct others that were clearly under his supervision as the moved the deceased.

"If Marze is having their own problems, I suggest we find out what it is before looking for your friend's family," Philia said. "Something this big that involves the entire town could affect them too, and we don't want to cause more stress at a time like this."

"I suppose that makes sense," Claude said.

The three of them started off again, and entered the world renowned town of magic knowledge.

***

The entire population of Marze was apparently in its largest church, which was being used as a town hall. The building was a magnificent piece of architecture, a high dome shaped ceiling made of stone, from which hanged crest-lit chandeliers. The walls were adorned with wooden carvings of crests. One side of the room had a wooden stage for whoever was speaking, placed high up for everyone to see, along with a metal gong to attract attention. Claude noted that the dome reflected the sound in the room quite well, allowing everyone to hear everyone without anyone raising their voice. Of course, the downside of that was when everyone was speaking, it could be deafening, and it was made worse by people trying to shout above one another.

Today was certainty a day like that. The room was large, but packed and Claude had barely any room to move, squished into an uncomfortable wooden chair. So he instead focused on the appearance of the people he could see. Aside from Rena, Philia and himself, he guessed that there were a fair few other travellers mixed in with the crowd. Still, it was the townspeople made up the bulk of the people here.

"Oi! Watch where you stick your elbows!" said a girl, another traveller, who was sitting next to Rena.

"How much room can you possibly need?" Rena retorted. Claude didn't think Rena would try to get into an argument in a public place for no reason, she was just justifying herself, but other people might not be so willing to let it go.

"I can't believe that I'm sitting next to this pseudo-country girl again" the girl with blond ringlets next to Rena said. Rena was prevented from gaining the last word by the gong on stage. The elders of Marze were ready to start.

"Attention! Attention!" called out a young woman up on the stage. "The elders of Marze must address you now." She waited until the room quietened down before introducing her collleage. "Elder Miny will now tell you about the crisis that we now face. Elder Miny?"

The young woman stood aside, allowing a very old woman with snow white hair to take centre stage. She coughed once to clear her throat and began.

"Thank you Elder Doria." Her voice was surprisingly quite strong for someone so old, she had no trouble at all being heard, even when taking the rooms favourable architecture into account. "We have called you all here, because out city faces a crisis unsurpassed by anything recorded in history. And it is important that we have access to all possible aid that we can reach in this time.

"It will be well known to many of you already, but a few children from our city have been kidnapped and are being held for ransom."

The room immediately erupted into a roar, and the Elder Miny was forced to ring the gong to bring everyone to attention again.

"As for their demands, these bandits have demanded money. Fifty thousand. The Elders have decided that we shall pay this"

"Where are we getting this money from?!"

"How do we know we can trust them?!"

"We can just pay, and then attack them after our children are safe!"

Elder Miny hushed the crowd before continuing. "Unfortunately, these are criminal elements of the lowest order we are dealing with. No trust on their part can be assumed. So, the Elders have called all people here in order to call for volunteers. The safety of the children must be assured during the... transfer…" Claude thought she sounded a bit bitter on the last word, but she continued "… and we will compensate any that helps us for our efforts. Rest assured that we are not going to attempt any aggressive action against these kidnappers until the children are safe, no matter how much they might deserve it."

"How boring. You'd think they'd make it exciting and stage a rescue or something," the girl next to Rena said. Claude hated the idea that people would risk peoples lives (that weren't their own) just to make something exciting. It demonstrated a lack of empathy.

The audience again started off mumbling about all sorts of topics. But one very common thread between all the audience members was about how the dead soldiers discovered outside Marze related to the situation. This soon overwhelmed everything else, and became the first question that had to be answered by the elders.

"Ahem. Yes, I regret that I must inform you that we recently discovered some dead soldiers outside the town." Elder Miny informed the crowd. "However, there is nothing to show–"

"Because you know that no one will want to fight bandits that destroyed Royal Soldiers!" someone yelled from the crowd.

"Now, now! There is no evidence that these bandits are responsible for their deaths." Miny's hands moved up and down in a patting like motion as she spoke, as if it would help settle the crowd. Claude had seen enough to things like this in the Federation to know it wouldn't work.

"You expect us to buy that?!"

"Of course they're the same!"

"There must be fifty of them at least!"

It was true that the revelation that trained soldiers had been killed outside Marze, most probably by the bandits that had committed the kidnapping, would put a serious dent in recruitment of possible fighters, and drive up the price or any mercenaries that did stay. Even without evidence, there was no way that the people wouldn't believe the events connected, and Claude couldn't disagree with them. And who would fight a group that outmatched soldiers of the best training? This was an extremely difficult position that Marze was in.

"If there are any brave souls amongst you that are willing to help us in this task, we would ask that you stand up," Elder Miny said. Claude could have sworn she mouthed something after that, he imagined something along the lines of 'please', saying it in a faint hope, but the translator in his ear didn't give him lip reading powers.

No one in the room moved. Given that description of the events, the people here were clearly thinking that taking on these ruthless bandits was a task beyond them. But surely if many of them combined forces they could do it. Then again, what use was saving three children if twenty of the villagers died in the process? Still, the silence was rather uncomfortable.

Claude considered the possibility that he could rescue the children, independently. He wasn't from this planet, and had a weapon that few people would understand, giving him a great advantage over his foes. _If the bandits see me attack with my phase gun, they'll become scared, won't they? Probably. I can bluff them out that way._

Still, it was a risky idea. He didn't know how many bandits there would be, or what skills they had. Sword and hatchet fighters he could handle, but if there were some archers or symbology users (or crest magicians as they were called on this planet) with them, it could be quite dangerous. His gun wouldn't be able to save him if they did manage to hit him.

The idea tossed itself in Claude's head. And just as Claude thought he might actually raise his hand, the entire crowd started making noise. Claude looked up to see what was causing the commotion.

Apparently, there was a man in the crowd willing to fight.

A tall man, his height apparently amplified by the fact he was standing while everyone else around him. He had long blue hair, and a smooth young face that was devoid of any expression that Claude could make out. He wore a blue travelling cloak over his dark green clothes, and by his side was a sheathed sword that reminded Claude of a katana.

"Dias?" said Rena. It took a moment for Claude to remember where he had heard the name. That was Rena's friend Arlia, who had left for some reason, wasn't it?

Dias stood silently, while the people around him murmured and the elders on stage wiped their brows in relief. Dias started to walk calmly up to the stage, keeping his eyes focused ahead, and the people around him were practically falling over themselves to get out of the way of the man who was going to save them.

"Maybe that's not who you think it is," Philia said. "I hear that mistaken identity is all the fashion these days of late."

"I'm sure it must be," Rena said. Claude noticed that Rena was subconsciously fidgeting with her crescent moon hairpin.

"I have to talk to Dias," Rena said suddenly, and she got up and followed him up the aisle before Claude could do anything but follow, with Philia behind. And he was halfway up the central aisle when he realised that they had effectively just volunteered to join the rescue effort. And he couldn't back down now, not with the entire hall clapping him on. Putting on his best and most reassuring smile, he headed back behind the stage.

***

"Oh, I am so pleased that you have inspired several other travellers to take up arms aside of you," one of the Marze elders, a woman with hooded woman with black hair. "I was afraid of sending one man by himself."

"No need to wait from word of the village gatewatchers about these ones. I met these people earlier. They came from the north, away from the forest, so I believe it safe to talk to these ones openly as well," Elgas said.

Rena didn't know what Elgas was referring to, but right now there was something else she had to find out. And as she approached, Dias turned around to face the people who had volunteered to aide him.

He was older, but still, Rena wouldn't have forgotten that face. He seemed taller, older. Well, he was older, of course, and he filled out his tall frame more, but that wasn't it. It was like he was, more… more 'focused'. Especially his eyes, which Rena now felt coolly seeing everything, and giving away nothing about their owner. His clothes were still of the simple style that he preferred, but under them, how had he changed?

"Rena? I am surprised to see you here." If Dias was surprised, it wasn't showing on his face. But few things ever did.

"Why are you here?"

"Just passing through." Rena should have known that she wasn't going to get much information out of him easily.

"I meant, why did you volunteer to help?"

"You should know why."

"I see." So it was about the enemy, and the victims. It was another chance to act out an apology. And a repeat of the situation several years ago. Did Dias think that now that he was different, that the result would be different? But it wouldn't. No matter what happened with Marze and its problems, Dias wouldn't be able to make it up. In a way, Dias was also a victim.

Aisde from Dias, Rena, Philia and Claude, there were about a four elders of Marze in the group, although Rena knew that Marze would have about twenty of so in total. These included Elgas, whom they had met earlier, and three others, all of them old except for one petite woman with short brown hair, she was inexplicitly quite young. The woman obviously knew that Rena was looking at her for this reason, and without prompting explained herself.

"If you're wondering how someone my age can be an 'elder', it because the elders are decided on merit, not age. Although our leader does happen to also be our oldest." The woman then turned, along with all the other elders to the oldest, a bald man who looked like he was about to collapse on top of his walking stick.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Xong. I understand you've already met Elgas earlier today," the old man said waving his hand towards the blond man Rena had talked to outside of Marze. "And it seems that you already know this man who has so bravely pledged to assist us."

"Yes, I know Dias. He's a good friend of mine. I know you can trust him in matters of swordsmanship." Behind her, Rena thought she detected Claude shifting about, but she couldn't be sure.

"Right, well, to business. To be quite frank, we are in trouble. The bandits have presumably somehow killed the soldiers, meaning that they must be quite skills fighters. And they have entered the ruins inside the forest, so they must be skilled crest users to break the seals on that place. They have taken three of our children, and have demanded a ransom. Instead, we elders have decided that our only course of action is to attempt a rescue, and that is why we need your help."

"Wait… I thought you said that you _were_ going to pay," Rena said.

"We had to lie," Doria answered. "We have not enough time to locate the possible spies among the travellers in the crowd. So we claimed that we were going to pay, so that if they are there, they will report to their masters that everything is going along as they plan. Then, when we show up, it will be a surprise to them. And if there were no spies, we've lost nothing. We are, of course, cross-checking your approach to Marze and making sure it wasn't from the direction of the bandits hideout as we speak right now."

_That's reassuring, I suppose._

"This town is well recognised as having several masters of crest magic," Dias said. "Why is it that you have so few volunteers? And none of your own people?"

The question was answered by the very old woman with the strong voice, the one that had made the announcement on stage, Elder Miny. "The ruins themselves are sealed through crest magic, meaning that no one should be able to enter. Not only that, but the region surrounding the ruins makes the using of magic unreliable. It's not impossible to use magic in the surrounding forest, but the results can be somewhat random in effectiveness."

"They built a town of symbology users next to a forest where they couldn't use symbology?" Claude asked, although only Rena and Philia would understand him.

"I guess so," answered Rena.

Philia was able to explain it. "A lot of symbologists are interested in what stops symbology because they hope it will help them understand more about how symbology works."

Dias flashed an expression for a fraction of a second. It was clear he didn't understand Claude's words, but he did understand the reply. Did he think that Rena had somehow suddenly become bi-lingual? That they had some code between them? Whatever it was, he was keeping the thoughts to himself.

"To be quite honest, it's something that only the most experienced amongst us would be able to achieve. The thought that mere bandits could do it, it's just unbelievable" Elgas said, back on the subject of the bandits. "At any rate, we can't afford the ransom. So we are going to attempt a rescue."

"There's something else, isn't there?" Philia said. "You could afford a ransom of fifty thousand gold if you really wanted to."

"It's not that," Elder Doria said.

"So, they've demanded something else from you. Something that you can't pay." Philia said.

"It appears that we are not as good at hiding this as we thought," Doria said.

"Elder Doria, you should not have caved so easily." Xong's words were sharp, kept at normal volume, but quick and weighted with reprimand.

"Forgive me. I just thought that since they already knew-"

Xong cut off the young 'Elder' before she could finish. "Suspicion isn't the same as knowledge. We will talk about this later, Elder Doria."

"Yes, Elders," said the now humbled Doria.

Rena wasn't sure if she should ask just what that was all about. Doria had clearly let something be known that she wasn't supposed to, but why weren't they supposed to know? They had offered his services to help them, surely they were entitled to know everything?

Before Rena or anyone else could ask just what this conversation meant, the Elders started off again

"Ahem. You must understand, until this situation is resolved, we want as few possible sources of leaks that could reach the bandits. Anyhow, these despicable bandits have made a demand. A representative appeared, demanding that the children would be returned upon payment of fifty thousand gold coins, and a book from the Marze library. In addition, they demanded that only a single person could pay the ransom," Xong said.

"A book? Why didn't mention that earlier?" Rena asked.

"We don't want the main population to know about it for now. The book is somewhat famous in Marze, amongst the scholars at least. It would make their acceptance of the ransom demand less likely. They might force us to attempt a rescue" Miny replied.

"You _are_ attempting a rescue," Rena said flatly.

"Again, possible spies can't be allowed to know that," Doria said. She had apparently already recovered from her reprimand just minutes ago.

"So what's so special about this book that you won't pay the ransom?" Dias asked.

"While the book is extremely valuable, that's not the problem. The problem is that we don't _have_ the book anymore. It's missing. And so you see, we didn't tell everyone, because we must attempt a rescue," Elder Miny said.

"Specifically, the 'Book of Sealing' is what they were after. I'm sure you've never heard of it," Doria said dismissively, "but it's an extremely valuable book containing knowledge on sealing crests older than any city you can name."

_Book of Sealing? That's Celine's book! The book I have right now!_

"We don't know how long the book has been missing. It's valuable, but rather advanced, and used rarely. It may be that one of the librarians moved it. However, so far we've accounted for all but one of the librarians and none of them know about the location of the Book of Sealing," Miny said.

Before Rena could gather her thoughts, Philia asked another question of the Marze elders. "You said a 'certain person' had to deliver the ransom? Who would this be?"

"Ironically, they've asked for the one librarian that we can't locate," Miny said.

"My daughter, Celine, is the one they have asked for. But, she isn't here. She left town recently without explanation. I suppose she could have borrowed the book, but she knows full well that such a book should not be removed. And she was never the type to much interest in heavy study, she was always more of a person that preferred learning through practical experience."

_Celine?! And Elgas is her father?!_

That was remarkable. They had already found the one person they wanted. But, as Philia had suggested being possible, he was heavily involved with this kidnapping business. Philia was also probably right that now was not the time to tell him everything, that they should wait until after. But, she had the book needed, and… it was so hard to think what the right thing to do was, when there was so much of importance going on.

"I have to say" said Xong "These demands are really quite strange. Money is money, of course, but the book? Such a thing would only be useful a crest magician."

"Could they sell it?" Rena asked.

"Then why not just demand more money instead? And why that book? We have hundreds of unique books on crest magic."

"And I can't understand why they would want my daughter to deliver it. Asking for a single person makes sense, but Celine specifically? There are many people in the city who are far weaker at crest magic than her, it seems strange to not ask for a weaker magician, or a non-crest user to deliver the money."

"I thought magic didn't work in the forest," Rena said.

"No, it's only less reliable. A powerful magician could still fry you inside-out half of the time, and they would try it if they were in danger. What bandit would take that risk for no reason?"

"Perhaps they need someone to interpret the book? Celine is a librarian," said Philia.

'_Is' a librarian. 'Was' a librarian. And a treasure hunter, a fiancée, and a happy young woman, with a life to look forward to._

"Possibly. But surely there must be others in Marze capable of that, so what makes Celine unique in that respect? And if that was the case, then we couldn't send her in, knowing it was a trap," Elgas said. As her father, that would be his natural response for the safety of his daughter. "At times like this, I do wish my wayward daughter would let me know what she is doing more often and where I could find her."

"But since she isn't here, and we don't have the book, it doesn't matter. A rescue attempt is our only option," added Doria. "It's clear that is what we must do."

"She seems a bit gung-ho about this," Claude said. Perhaps it was a good thing that no one could understand him right now. The Elders probably wouldn't appreciate that. _And what does Dias think of this man that he doesn't understand?_

"Umm…" Rena thought carefully about what she would do next. Marze was in trouble because they were missing the Book of Sealing and Celine. Rena could give them back the book right now, and should, but there was no choice about bringing up the questions about where she got it from.

"Do you have something to say?" Doria asked, looking expectantly at Rena.

Philia stood close and whispered in her ear. "You don't have to mention your friend right now. This city has enough problems as it is. There's no point adding pain to it, not now. If you want to return your friend's book, go ahead, but I suggest not talking about her fate yet."

No matter what action Rena chose, she knew she would regret it a bit. She could avoid telling Celine's father about his daughter now so he could concentrate on the planning the rescue mission with his full attention, something that would be needed if the children were to be rescued safely. Or she could tell everything, and avoid looking like she was trying to hide something now. Still, Philia's words did have some logic behind it. The children should be more important than Rena's feelings for herself.

"I… have the book."

Elgas and the other elders looked stunned. Dias only raised his eyebrows in surprise. Rena reached into the bag at her side, and pulled out the heavy leather bound book, and carefully handed it over to Celine's father. He quickly thumbed through the pages, as if to convince himself of its reality.

"It is actually the real thing?" Elder Miny asked.

"It is," said Doria, who was looking over Elgas' shoulder. "Thank goodness, this is quite the coincidence."

"Yes, it is," said Xong. Rena could tell from his voice and the look on his face that he was a bit suscpicious of this new turn of events. Miny and Elgas were similar, and only Doria seemed to be completely happy.

Elgas spoke sharply. "You must tell me where you got this book."

"I… well, that is… a friend gave it to me."

"A friend? What kind of friend? What was their name?" He was clearly suspecting that Rena was talking about something to do with Celine already. It made sense, since they both disappeared in the same time frame and Celine had access to the book. Not to mention it was completely true.

"There's no time to worry about that now," Elder Doria said, saving Rena from having to explain herself. "We will ask you later. We must decide what to do in light of this new event."

"I suppose we could pay the ransom now, if we wanted," Elder Miny said. "Though we will still need to hire your services in any case."

"Whatever," replied Dias.

"Wait… we have the book again. We don't need to fight anymore, do we?" Claude said, letting out a breath that he probably didn't know he was holding. There was a slight look of relief on his face too, Rena thought everyone could see it.

"But we don't have Celine," Philia said. "So we still have to fight."

"Would they even know what Celine looks like? I'm sure one of the other villagers, or even us, could just pretend to be her."

"But then they'd take whoever Marze sent, and it would just get worse once they discover the deception. I won't pretend to understand what these bandits want with these conditions. We _must_ attempt the rescue, it's the only option," Philia said. She seemed quite certain. In her mind, it must be a rather clear choice.

The Elders huddled together talking amongst themselves, whispering so that Rena couldn't hear. Were they talking about her? Elgas seemed agitated, as the other three were siding against him on whatever topic it was. After a few minutes, they finished and turned back to face the travellers.

It was Xong that spoke for the Elders now, laying out their instructions for the rescue. "The plan will continue as before, no ransom will be paid. We will ask that you enter the forest tomorrow. We have two days to meet their demands, so tomorrow is the only option. Now, I see we have a small force, but your objective is to only rescue the children and come back, so that's probably better than sending in a large number of fighters. If we sent in a lot, we would lose surprise, and the bandits would just threaten the children to make us back off. Do not engage the bandits themselves if you can help it, they probably outnumber you."

"Fine. I work better alone," Dias said.

A new, yet familiar voice appeared behind them. "Sounds fun. So, how much are we getting paid for this?"

"Ernest?!" Claude said in surprise as everyone turned to face the newcomer. "How?"

Ernest was dressed in the same clothes he had been wearing last they saw him, a long white coat over his durable clothes, and more noticeably, a bandana on his forehead that Claude thought was amazingly significant for whatever reason. His face was in need of a bit more of a shave since last time though. But he looked like he was happy and healthy at least.

"What can I say? I was in the meeting, and saw you chase after tall here," Ernest thumbed towards Dias as he spoke "… and so I followed you here." Ernest shrugged his shoulders to show the simplicity of it all.

"Man, I'm so glad to see you again."

"Likewise Claude. And you too Rena."

"We thought we had lost you in Krosse." Claude said, clearly relieved. "After screwing up that meeting…"

"'Screwing up?' Well, you can tell me about while we do this job."

"Excuse me, but what is this man saying?" Elder Elgas asked.

_Oh. They can't understand Ernest either, just like Claude, can they? I guess Ernest had better stick with us._ "Oh, he's just saying that he's one of us, so he will be joining us as well."

"So, another man to help us," Elder Miny said. "That is very excellent news. Now about your compensation. The elders are prepared to offer you five hundred coins-

"Deal," Dias said, cutting the elder off before she could finish. The Elder seemed rather surprised.

"Dias, don't you think that's rather… cheap?" Rena asked him.

"I'm getting what I want already."

And what was that? A chance to challenge bandits, Rena thought. Dias didn't find money of much interest, other than what was needed to get by. This situation had things of value to Dias, which was probably why he had volunteered to help.

"Okay, the children you are looking for are two boys and a girl, aged eight to ten. Their names are Bart, Colin and Cecile," said Xong.

Rena saw Dias mouth something. She didn't hear it, but she knew it was the name 'Cecile'. No one else noticed, and Xong continued his explanation.

"We don't know what condition they are being kept in, but always remember that their safety is your top priority in this case."

"You already said that. I'll remember," Dias said, already back to full attention. "I can do this job by myself. I'm leaving to prepare."

_You're going to do this alone? Dias?_

_No._

_It doesn't have to be that way._

"It was good to see you again Rena." And Dias headed out the door.

* * *

**Dictionary: Marze**

Marze is a moderately sized, yet quiet town of crest magic users on the Krosse continent, planet Expel. The town needs to import food as its farming population isn't sufficient to sustain it; the money needed to pay for this is acquired through the town's crest magic research. Magical research is perhaps the only purpose of the town, it is located aside the Sealed Forest that contains ruins sealed with crest magic to make study easier. Everyone in the town is expected to have learned some degree of magical ability and as such nearly everyone living in Marze has visible tattoos of various crests inscribed on their skin.

The town is run by a council of Elders, who are chosen based on their ability as crest magicians amongst the population. At any one time, there are about twenty elders, and the head of these Elders is currently Elder Xong Revast, a very old man.

The crest magic library is perhaps the most important resource in the town, and is currently under run by several librarians, including Celine Jules, who is currently absent for reasons unknown to the other librarians.


	22. C2 15 Predictable Seperations

**Chapter 2-15: Predictable separations**

**SD 266-06-10**

Claude followed Rena (who was following Dias) in taking the back entrance out of the church, as suggested by the Elders. They had attracted enough attention as it was when they had volunteered to help with the paying the ransom demands (which turned out to secretly be a rescue mission), and they certainly didn't want any more just this second. They had been assured that the townspeople in the church had been advised to be discrete while they had been discussing the plan itself, but you couldn't rely on the entire population to follow that.

Dias looked at Rena first, but then turned his attention to the rest of the group.

"You have fought bandits before, I trust?"

Claude looked at Ernest, who was looking back at him with the same expression, one of wishful thinking. So Ernest hadn't either then. Well, he was an archaeologist, not a mercenary like Dias, so it only made sense. Still, surely it'd be helpful for their argument if he'd run into some troubles at some time in the past with tomb raiders or something.

"Well... we have combat experience, and training, but not against bandits." Claude admitted.

Upon seeing Dias look expectantly at Rena, and she was about to translate, but Philia got to it before she could.

"They say they've never fought bandits before."

Clearly, Dias's frown at this information wasn't going to bode well. If only Philia could have translated that in a more helpful way.

"Training is not a substitute for real experience. And your first real experience should not be against kidnappers. Not when one wrong move could cost an innocent life that is not your own."

"Now hang on!" Claude protested. Dias might not understand the words, but he could clearly read the emotion.

But Dias didn't seem to care, as he turned to leave. "You should stay here. The mission will go easier if there's no chance of amateurs getting in my way." And he started walking away, making sure to leave himself with the last word.

Rena didn't seem to see the problem. "Don't worry Claude. I'll talk to him. Trust me, when I tell him about what you've done, I know he will agree to work with us."

Philia objected against this idea, interceding herself between Claude and Rena. "After he insulted Claude like that? Why should we care for his help? I'm sure we can handle this on our own, without _his_ help."

"Philia, how can you say that?"

Philia shrugged. "It true, isn't it? I'm only stating the obvious."

Rena stepped around her to talk to Claude. "We should work together with Dias on this mission, Claude."

Claude thought that Philia's words made a lot of sense. "Why? He's made it clear that he doesn't want our help. I don't think we need it. Who made him boss anyway?"

"That's right. That man is antagonistic to us. I cannot think it a good idea to work with him," Philia said.

Rena sounded like she was starting to plead, realising that she was losing the argument. "What? Things would be much easier if we worked together. He just doesn't know you. If he knew what about what you could do, I know he would be more than happy to work alongside you."

Claude crossed his arms to block her argument. "He doesn't seem to think so. So why should we? We don't need him."

"I agree with Claude. That man is useless to our cause," Phillia said.

Rena took a step back, mouth open, unable to decide what to say. Eventually, when the mere silence made it clear that she had lost, she managed to get something out. "H-how can you say that?! Well... well, maybe you don't need Dias, but I do." And Rena's face suddenly became resolved, and she decided that she wasn't going to take anymore. She spun and left Claude and the rest behind her, running off in the direction that Dias had gone in.

"Oh man…" _What's wrong with her? It wasn't supposed to happen like that. I didn't go too far, did I?_

Claude watched Rena run off in the direction. Aside him, he could sense Philia also watching her (or was she watching him?). Her face was devoid of expression, she must have been making conscious effort to keep the disappointment away. However, the words she muttered to herself weren't so guarded. "I had expected as much. Predictable."

"Huh. I wonder what I'm missing," said Ernest.

Claude had almost forgotten that Ernest was there in the fuss over Rena and Dias. He must have just been keeping quiet since he didn't understand what was going on. Claude took a quick look around to _really_ confirm for himself that he hadn't forgotten anyone else that might have been witness to the disagreement before replying. "Oh, sorry about that Ernest. Anyway, you haven't told me yet how come you're here."

"The ruins of course," said Ernest, as if were the most obvious thing in the world. Well he did mention that he was an archaeologist, so perhaps it was.

"The ruins? You mean the ones the bandits are holed up in? You want to go there?"

"The very same. Of all the things I've searched for so far on this planet, I think they have the potential to be the most interesting. What kind of civilisation must have once existed to create them? And where did they go? Why have we no trace of them these days?"

"So… you're going to come with us to fight the bandits, just so you can look at the ruins?

"Not just that. It's pretty funny how they're getting in my way though. There's also the fact that I couldn't very well let you do this by yourself. I know of your father…"

"You know my father?!"

"I know _of_ him. Everyone does, he's really famous."

Of course Ernest would know. Everyone in the entire Pangalactic Federation knew. The man who was heralded throughout the entire Federation for not only leading the charge in defence against Lezonia? And their masters, but also introducing symbology, an entire field of scientific research that practically allowed people to use magic.

Ernest continued while waiting for Claude to get his thoughts straight. "And I couldn't let you do this alone. What if someone found out when I got back? Could be a tad embarrassing when they decide who gets tenure in twenty years time." Claude really couldn't tell if he was serious about that last part. He didn't sound like it, but people were always surprising him when he judged on vocal tone alone.

"He's not going alone. I'm going with him," said Philia.

"Philia?! I didn't know you could fight," Claude said in surprise.

"I'm not fighting."

"Wha? Then why are you coming? It's too dangerous for you."

A smug look crossed Philia's face. "Bandits are not a risk to me. If they so much as glare in my direction, Dark Sphere will take them down."

_Did she really just say that?!_ To trust your safety to a unimaginable entity, one that had stolen Celine and Clyde from them, the entire town of Kurik. How could Philia say that?! "Whoa… you're trusting your safety… to Dark Sphere?!"

"What's Dark Sphere?" Ernest asked. Claude felt slightly jealous of him, he was still ignorant of the true horror that existed as that abomination.

Philia went into her emotionless expression again. She tended to do that whenever Dark Sphere came up in conversation. Maybe that was some sort of defence mechanism, but Claude knew he was no psychologist. "There's no need to worry about Dark Sphere showing up. I always know ahead of time, Dark Sphere always warns me. And that's how I know I'll be fine." And then, Claude noticed, just now, perhaps there was a small smile on her face afterall. "And I know that Dark Sphere doesn't _need_ to show up, because I know you'll do an exemplary job yourself, so there'll be no need for Dark Sphere to show up. Now, how are we to get ready for tomorrow?"

***

Dias had booked a second-floor room in Finn's Inn. Rena walked slowly up to the entrance to the room Dias had hired, to find the wooden door closed, and from behind it she could hear movement. A regular motion repeated over and over, with several steps on the floor and through the air continuously practised. Behind that door, Dias was training.

Then the sounds suddenly, replaced by silence. _He knows I'm here._

Still, she couldn't just go in, could she? _Even if he is waiting for me to come in._ After a moment, Rena lightly knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Dias's hotel room was simple, he had very few belongings to carry with him. A small room that felt cooler than it looked, with a single window covered up with a curtain even at this time of the day. The bed was the only major piece of furniture, and Dias was using the rest of the room as space to practice his sword. Only after Rena had closed the door behind her did Dias re-sheath his blade and place it down on the bed beside him.

Dias himself had small beads of sweat trickling down his face, and his breathing was heavier than normal, audible now that Rena was in the same room. He seemed to pay no attention to this however, his gaze firmly fixed on Rena.

"I was surprised to see you there today, Rena."

Likewise. For them to appear to cross paths like this was an interesting coincidence. _I suppose if any two people travel the land, they will eventually be in the same place at the same time, but that doesn't lessen the surprise when it happens._

"About what you said earlier. So... you're going to fight the bandits alone?"

"And you're not. It's the natural order of things."

_The natural order. But why is the natural order the way things were supposed to be? Why must you always be alone?_

"I want to come with you," Rena said, the words spilling out before she realised she was saying it.

Dias paused. He wasn't doing anything anyway, but Rena could detect the change in the way he was looking at her, that he was as he was thinking over her request.

"And what about your unintelligible friends?" said Dias as he looked towards the curtained window.

"I know Claude would be glad to have you along with us. He would be happy to work with you."

Rena had thought her voice of sure and steady, but evidently Dias thought otherwise. "I'd say I'm not the one you need to convince."

_Claude had refused to listen. But, he just doesn't understand. If only I could have convinced him._

Dias understood perfectly what Rena's silence meant. "They won't have me. So be it."

"But... but you can't go alone! It's not right!"

"You know I can help, you have to take me with you."

Dias stared are her for a moment, and then suddenly chuckled quietly. "I suppose that even if I say 'no', you'll still be there. You're the one person I can't say no to."

"Of course I am."

***

_That Dias Flac was so abrasive. He thought he could handle it all on his own. Where did he get off having an attitude like that? _

_I might not be used to this world. But I know I can handle a bunch of bandits easily. A phase gun would could easily incapacitate, or even kill any lowlife if I set it strong enough, and the rest would capitulate at the sight of that._

_Why can't Rena see that? She had seen the power of the weapon, no sword could hope to match it, no matter how skilled the wielder. Even if Dias knows how to incorporate qigong techniques with his sword, it could never match superior technology of the Pangalactic Federation._

_He was selfish, that man. Does Dias think that he can just run in there an be the big hero because he thinks he's such a good fighter?_

***

Rena lay awake in the bed that she was sharing with Dias, since the room he had already hired only had one. She hadn't gone back to see Claude after their fight, and instead decided to stay with Dias, since he said he wanted to start early. Dias was sleeping quietly. He never snored, but occasionally he would mumble something, though only once was she able to make out a word, the name of his late sister Cecille.

_Why was Claude being so unreasonable? Dias is only doing everything he can to ensure that the mission is a success, and the rescue will go well. This is all he doesn with his life, searching for meaning in combat. Claude, if only you had been willing to let me talk to him. Dias would have been more than happy for your help, if you wanted to give it. Then everything would be perfect._

It was too late now. Claude wasn't going to change his mind, so they would just have to do each part their own way tomorrow.

***

Dias awoke well before the sun rose the next day, and quickly dressed himself for battle. Which was effectively the same thing he wore every day. A set of light weight pants and shirt for manoeuvrability, and a long cloak to hide the motions of his katana from his enemies. Yes, today would be another day that his skills with the sword would again be put to the test. _Every_ day was potentially a day that his sword would be needed to defend or take another life.

_Cecille?_

What were the chances that one of the children he had been tasked with saving had shared that name? What did it mean? Dias shook the thought away, such thoughts would not change anything.

Rena was still asleep in her bed. She had gone to bed relatively early, a sensible idea given what was likely today. But tension wasn't good for getting a restful sleep.

"Rena."

Rena mumbled something in her sleep that Dias couldn't make out.

"Rena, time to wake up." He gently nudged her body.

Rena slowly opened her eyes to look around the room. Something that would be difficult, since the only light were the few candles that Dias had already lit.

"Wha... it's still dark outside." Rena kept yawning as she spoke.

"The first light before dawn will appear soon. That's when we're leaving, so we need to get ready now."

"So... early?" Rena said, unable to stop herself from yawning. She stretched her arms wide nearly striking Dias by accident. She was too tired to notice.

"Like everyone else, the bandits will be at their weakest now. They've made it through the night, and they will off guard now before the next day. Striking now has the greatest chance of success. You need to get dressed in something warm and eat something before then."

Rena nodded obliviously, and it was still a minute or so before she actually made any move to get out of her bed. Dias used the time to prepare himself the oats they were going to eat for breakfast and then to clean his sword.

"Didn't you already clean your sword last night?" Rena asked, now somewhat alert.

"I did."

"Oh."

Of course he had. Today was another day for this sword to prove itself. For Dias to prove himself. Just like every day.

***

Claude, Ernest and Philia made slow progress through the forest. Everywhere between the trees was covered in fern-like plants native to this world, and there appeared to only a few cut paths that were poorly kept and constantly invaded by the surrounding vegetation. And everything was damp with dew, making the way forward slippery, slowing them down further. But surely Rena and Dias must have come this way.

They had planned to start early, and leave at dawn, to get a head start on everyone else. Philia said that as a plan of attack, arriving when the bandits would be at their least alert early in the morning made sense. But even though they had gone with that plan, they were still somehow still later than Rena and Dias at leaving, if the town watch was reliable. For some reason, Philia found being beaten to the punch by those two incomprehensible.

Claude thought he knew though. They must have wanted to get their first. That Dias, he, well, he probably wasn't the kind of person that was doing it to show Claude up. Claude didn't get that sense from him. He'd probably gone out early with Rena for the same reason that Philia had suggested. So why was it bothering him so much that he _might_ have done it to be ahead of Claude?

Claude was taking the lead, trying to read a map that the Elders had given him yesterday that would supposedly lead them towards the ruins in the Sealed Forest, the most likely location of the bandits. Ernest was cautious, believing that since they had left early, they should take the time to scout and look for signs or tracks of the bandits moving through the forest, while also making sure that they left as few tracks of their own as possible. He had pointed out that since Rena and Dias were ahead of them, and that Claude didn't really want to be with them anyway, there was no reason to follow after them directly, since they'd never find anything that Dias wouldn't find first. Philia was the opposite, saying that they had to move as quickly as they could, that rescue was the most important thing to do, the ruins were the place to be, and that things like leaving tracks were completely unimportant. At odds, it was left to Claude as the deciding vote on the approach. And for now, Claude was moderating himself between them.

"Claude, do you know those soldiers we found outside Marze?" Philia asked as they continued through the forest.

"You mean the dead ones?"

"Yes, killed by the bandits. Why do you think they were here?"

Claude stopped walking and looked first at Philia, and then at Ernest. "I don't know."

Philia's voice was low, but firm. "I think I know. They were Lacuer soldiers, so it should be obvious. Why else would Lacuer soldiers be here? They were Princess Rozaria's escort, heading back to Lacuer."

"P-P-Princess Rozaria?" The princess of the second largest kingdom of this planet. The one who Claude had almost met back in Krosse. Who had competed and failed against Celine for the affections of the Prince of Krosse, a man who looked identical to Claude. Of all people, _she_ was here?

"Yes. Her body was obviously not among the fallen, so I'm sure she must be with the bandits right now. They must be ecstatic at their apparent luck to have such a hostage."

Ernest shook his head in confusion. Naturally, he would not understand what they were talking about, but he seemed content to wait until Claude and Philia explained before asking about it.

"But hang on," Claude said. "They didn't make any demands for this Rozaria. If they had her, why would they kidnap children?"

"Because of the Book of Sealing. They want that specifically. They think Marze has the book, so they took something from Marze. But if they let it be known that they had the princess, Marze would wait until help from Krosse arrived. With just children kidnapped, the people of Marze will consider paying the ransom themselves, something they would never do if they had to be responsible for the Princess Rozaria. Also, Rozaria is worth a lot more, perhaps more than Marze can afford. That would also force a rescue effort. No, these bandits are clever, the leader at least. They'll release the children when they get the money, and then take Rozaria to Krosse City or Lacuer. They don't want to risk a battle, so they'll be pressured if we take one to them."

"So, in addition to the children, we have to save a princess as well?" This was becoming more and more complicated all the time. They came to Marze for an important reason, to let Celine's family know what had happened to her. Claude himself was just supposed to be looking for the Sorcery Globe in the hopes that he could use it to leave the planet. Now he was in the middle of a forest searching for kidnapped children and princesses. Was this really supposed to be happening?

"I think it's essential that we find her while we are there. We can't back out of this," Philia said.

Ernest raised one of his two visible eyebrows (the third still covered by his bandanna) at this revelation. "Just forget about it until we find her," Philia said. "Then you'll understand."

"We'll see. Of course, there is another problem in fighting these bandits. It means that we are getting caught up in the politics of another..." Ernest paused here, glancing at Philia before choosing his next word. "...another country. Is this not against the UP3?"

"Hey, I'm not some stick in the mud" Claude retorted. "I'm just trying to help. Anyway, these events can't be anything but unnatural for a world like this one. So the UP3 doesn't apply if they are already being interfered with. And bandits aren't of cultural importance anyway. We're doing nothing wrong," Claude said firmly.

"What about breaking the seal to the ruins in the forest?" Ernest asked.

"The people of this planet know symbology naturally. That's not grounds for breaking the UP3. And you just came up with that right now, didn't you?"

Ernest kept quiet, letting the implication stay unanswered. Instead they walked on, and only after moving forward a good one hundread metres or so did he ask the next question. "And you're not afraid?"

"Hey, this is still and underdeveloped planet, afterall. A little use of my phase gun, and they'll surrender easily. Anyone can see that it's better than a sword."

"Huh. You know, I didn't think you'd be so gung-ho about this."

"I'm not gung-ho! What makes you think that?!" Gung-ho was another way of saying he was reckless. But Claude knew he wasn't that. His hand instinctively moved to the phase gun holstered at his hip. He'd made careful preparations, and he'd made a careful assessment for his technology likely effectiveness and he'd-

Ernest interrupted his train of thought. "I'm just saying, you sound a bit eager about going in. You don't have to prove anything."

"Why would I be trying to prove anything to you?"

"Funny. I didn't say anything about 'to me'. Anyway, why didn't you volunteer on your own then?"

Claude stopped stepping over the obstinate low ferns that blocked his path and faced Ernest to deliver a forceful reply. "I was going to volunteer!" _I was _so_ going to volunteer, only Dias got there first!_

"We know you were, Claude," said Philia, finally joining in the conversation again. "We both do. You're a brave and kind man, of course you would volunteer to help the troubled people of Marze."

_Right, of course I was._

"Don't worry Claude," Ernest said, patting Claude on the shoulder. "I really do believe that you would have volunteered. But trust me, one day you'll look back at this day and realise something about yourself."

"And what's that?"

"You're young," Ernest said with a knowing smile. And then he started making his way though the rough undergrowth again, satisfied with the end of the conversation.

_And what's that supposed to mean?_

* * *

**Dictionary: Sealed Forest**

The Sealed Forest is so-called because of the limited use of symbology (or crest magic as it is known on Expel) within it. Specifically, the forest contains a ruin which is believed (although not confirmed) to interfere with the use of symbology nearby. As a result, symbology users often find their powers rather random in effectiveness within the forest.

The forest covers a wide area, and on its outskirts, the town of Marze was established. Due to the forest's effect on symbology, many scholars have settled in Marze in an attempt to research the effect and the ruins within.

The forest is rather dense, and any tracks made must be cleaned regularly to prevent being overrun by the vegetation.


	23. C2 16 The Long Walk

**Chapter 2 – 16: The Long Walk**

**SD 266-06-11**

_Is there someone here?_ Claude felt for a moment that there was someone following him, but he wasn't sure enough to bring it up in conversation. And since they were getting closer to their target, they were keeping talking to a minimum as it was, to keep up an element of stealth.

_Still, what if the bandits knew they we're here already?_

Claude kept his right hand ready to reach for his gun at any moment. Ernest was also wary, but Claude couldn't tell if he was expecting anything or simply cautious. _Surely he would say something though, wouldn't he? Unless, he's doing the same thing I am and not saying anything because he thought he might be embarrassing himself?_ Philia seemed unconcerned, and kept nudging Claude and Ernest in the direction she was reading from the map she held. They were going a bit faster now, it was easier to see since the sun was now above the horizon, and they no longer had to worry so much about tripping over plants and rocks they couldn't see.

Suddenly, as they came into a small clearing covered in grass, but lacking in trees, a figure jumped out from behind a tree. Right away, Claude could tell he must been one of the bandits, he was too short to be Dias and too tall (and male) to be Rena. As he came into the open, his features became visible. He was a thin man with a face that had more wrinkles than a young man should. His head was covered in a yellow bandana to give him an element of style; everything else about him was plain. Brown tunic and pants, both patched repeatedly. Most importantly, his right hand carried a machete, which he held in front for emphasis.

"Careful," said Ernest. "There's more on the sides."

Claude quickly glanced into the trees and confirmed Ernest's warning. The bandits must have known that they'd been spotted as they all moved into the open where Claude could see them. They were dressed in a similar manner to their leader; these men definitely weren't the richest of folks. Fortunately, that extended to a lack of weaponry for all of them, as only three of the six bandits were armed. That Claude could see at least. One of the remaining unarmed three was cracking his knuckles, so obviously he didn't think that was going to be a problem.

Claude raised his hand to signal a halt. "Okay, we're here from Marze!" Claude yelled out, clear as he could. "Nobody has to get hurt!"

The bandits looked at him with puzzled faces, before breaking up into a controlled laughter.

"What's that, the fool says. I hear the noises commin' out of his mouth, but they don't make no sense to me!" taunted the bandits apparent leader.

_Of course. I keep forgetting about that._

Philia pushed her way between Claude and Ernest, standing out in front. She pointed a fully outstretched finger at the leader. "You'd best surrender now; your forces are completely helpless!"

_I know you're trying to help, but could you please not antagonise them so much?_

"Surrender?! You must be one of those, what's it called? Oh yeah, morons." The bandit had a rather disturbing smile, since Claude could see he was missing a few teeth. "Still, at least that pretty mouth of yours is capable of a full sentence."

"I wonder what else it can do!" shouted another bandit from behind him, although Claude was sure exactly which one. And he didn't care either; these bandits were all the same really.

Philia evidently realised that she had said enough, and retreated to safety behind her male companions. "I don't think this is going to end up the way you wanted," she said in a low voice.

_Terrific. No surrender it is then. It would be too much to hope for._

Claude slowly readied his phase gun, and pointed at the feet of the nearest bandit. The bandits weren't stupid. They might not recognise the weapon, but they must be able to figure out he was holding something of a threat. Claude kept his arm steady, using the time of the stand-off to decide his next move. To his left, Ernest had readied a leather whip.

The silence was broken by the loud cry of a bird somewhere in the distance, and the tension Claude had in his finger went off without his control. At the same instant, one of the bandits struck out from the side, catching Claude by surprise, and causing him to miss his shot. Instead of striking the bandit leader, it went and hit something in the forest, but there was no time to see what, for that miss-fire was the signal that sent all the bandits into a full assault.

Outnumbered as he was, Claude had no time for mercy or pleasantries, so he took two fast steps back and quickly shot the man that had first attacked him squarely in the chest. Claude didn't wait to see the effect; he knew it should be certainly fatal. Claude moved to his attention to his next opponent, the rapidly approaching leader of the group.

The dirty man was already swinging his machete downwards, so Claude quickly stepped to the side while at the same time kicking him in the stomach. The man doubled over, but before Claude could deliver the finishing blow, a third man caught him by surprise, and suddenly Claude found himself with his face in the dirt.

Claude recovered quickly enough just to see the man about to try and stomp him, but he was saved by Ernest, who whipped his leg into the air, tripping him down and giving Claude the time to get up.

He'd dropped his gun and there was no opportunity to look for it, so he was going to have to rely on his unarmed combat training now. Claude charged the nearest bandit with a flurry of punches that he clearly wasn't ready for, and most of them struck home, allowing Claude time to give a right hook to his face that put him down for good.

Suddenly, an arm came up around his neck, trying to choke him. By reflex, Claude stamped on his enemy's foot, and there was a squeal his Claude's ear as the man let go. Spinning quickly, Claude used his chance to give him a hard punch in the stomach, and then an uppercut that lifted the man clean off the ground. Seeing the man sprawled out and in no condition to get up again, Claude prepared to face the next opponent.

But it was over. He had beaten his share, and Ernest had taken care of the rest. He and Ernest were the only two left standing in the clearing, surrounded by the bodies of six fallen kidnappers.

Claude stretched his jaw out in an effort to massage the pain out, although the effect would really be nothing more than a placebo. Now that the battle was over and the adrenaline was wearing off, it was really starting to hurt from that knockdown punch he had taken. Maybe he should find Rena quickly, or he would have to deal with a rather sore bruise instead.

Still, the hours of unarmed combat practice he had taken during his training in the Pangalactic Federation had payed off, he had came out of the encounter quite well. Unarmed and close combat wasn't a popular training topic these days in the Federation, since nearly all combat was long-range ship bombardment, and individual humanoids were rarely needed to fight others. But Claude had found it interesting enough to take it as an elective study, probably due to his parentage.

"Ernest, are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I got a couple of them myself." Ernest stretched out his neck as he spoke, but he seemed to come out of the battle less injured than Claude. From what Claude could see, the archaeologist didn't look like he was in any sort of pain.

"You're quite good with that whip."

Ernest shrugged off the compliment. "Well, kidnappers are not something I've dealt with before, but I have met the occasional tomb raider."

"So we're good? Philia?"

"I'm here," she said from behind him. Claude turned to see Philia stepping out back into the clearing, apparently having chosen to stand away from the fighting. "I'm perfectly fine. Oh… doesn't that hurt?" Philia said bringing a hand up to feel Claude's face, but Claude pushed it away. "It's nothing."

"Do you think we should question the survivors?" Ernest asked. "They might be a little more cooperative now."

_Survivors? Yes, I suppose that they didn't all survive did they? But, it was them or us. There was no choice._ Claude looked over the collapsed bodies. One was killed from Claude's phase gun, which had burned a hole in his chest. Not the way Claude would want to end his days, but a quick death at least. One other, a young man with longer hair than the others and a shocked look on his face, had been slashed to death. Claude wasn't sure how that had happened, since neither he nor Ernest used a bladed weapon. The only thing Claude could think of was being hit by one of his companions in the melee, an accident. Claude closed his eyes. Despicable kidnapper or not, the loss of someone's life, even in self-defence, was not something to be taken lightly, Claude wanted to make sure that on some level, he would remember it. Claude's training in the Federation had included psychological training for events like this, and he hoped that it would now stand up in practice.

The other four were battered into unconsciousness, but apparently still alive. Probably the best thing to do with them would be to give them to the people Marze, who could decide the appropriate justice. But there wasn't any time to do that now. Claude hadn't brought any method to tie them up, so they would probably escape once they awoke. It was far from desirable, but there wasn't much that they could do under the circumstances.

"I doubt they'll be in any mood to help us, and they're certainly in no state to get up and fight us again," Philia said. "Let's leave them behind and hurry to the ruin. They've probably sent others ahead to warn of our approach."

_Very true._ And Rena would be ahead, so they might run into her, already prepared for battle, taking them by surprise. Dias might say he was good, but if he was ambushed... There was no time to waste.

Claude went and picked up his gun and check that it was still working. "Okay, let's go," Claude said, and the three of them charged ahead into the forest again.

***

Rena had been following Dias through the forest for quite some time without sight of any enemies, and she thought that they must be getting to the ruin in the centre soon. Their map (hard to read as it was) implied as such. But the tops of the trees were too thick to see through, so only trickles of the morning sun came through.

"You know Dias, Claude might not have fought bandits before, but he can certainly take care of himself. He helped me out a couple of times, and he has this fantastic weapon, the Sword of Light."

Dias stopped completely, turned, and looked at Rena, one eyebrow raised in scepticism.

"You're saying that Claude…"

"Well, he denies it. And although I wanted to believe it at first, I accept that he isn't the Warrior of Light. So you don't have to think of me that way. So I guess what he has isn't _the_ Sword of Light. But it's certainly something like it."

"Helped you out how?"

"Well, we're travelling the world together. Claude decided that he wanted to look for the Sorcery Globe, and that he'd need a guide, I decided that I would make my own search. I'm going to look for my real parents. And find out why I ended up in Arlia the way I did."

Rena expected Dias to say something about this. But he stayed silent, and Rena found herself talking again to fill the silence.

"And where Claude comes from, it's a real mystery. So it made me wonder, where did I come from? I've lived in Arlia all my life without knowing my true heritage. So I decided that I would guide Claude around this land, and at the same time, I would search for my own parents. Great idea, right?"

This time, Dias responded, abet in his short manner. "You trust him to help you search for your parents?"

"Yes," Rena said firmly.

Dias didn't say anything to this, but instead turned to continue the trek into the forest. But it didn't last long, since almost immediately, the trees that had consistently slowed their progress suddenly appeared to part, and they were done. They had reached the Sealed Forest Ruins.

The morning sun was shining over the ruin top, casting a large shadow on the forest and the clearing that separated the forest from the ruin. The clearing was very wide and spacious, and the ground was made of a fine but ordinary soil, not paved in any way, which made Rena wonder why there weren't at least any weeds growing in it. Even the most dedicated of gardeners wouldn't keep a space like this clear, for what reason would they do that?

The ruin itself was massive stone building, sandy coloured, and the outside was covered in vines and other plants growing on it. It was obvious that many of these plants had been removed, revealing underneath many strange patterns, like those used in crest magic, etched deep into the stone. _Were they made by the ruin's original owners or by the researchers from Marze?_ These particular crests were the largest Rena had ever seen, at least twice as tall as Rena herself. It seemed that the ruin entrance, a tall rectangular space in the wall, was especially surrounded by these crests, ready to enchant those that steeped through.

Rena couldn't see much in the entrance, it was clear that it became dark very quickly inside. But from what she could see, the inside seemed a different shade compared to the outside. Maybe the walls inside were grey or blue, but Rena couldn't be sure in this light and from this angle. She needed to get a closer look.

"Hold it," Dias said, barring Rena's advance with his outstretched arm, even forcing her back into the forest slightly. "Look there."

Dias nodded at the ground near the ruins entrance. And in the shadows, a bit to the side of the entrance, Rena saw what made Dias stop. There were several bodies there, lying motionless.

"What is that?" Rena whispered, and staying close behind Dias. "Are the bandits sleeping there?"

"From their poses, I would say that they are dead. People do not sleep like that."

Rena squinted to get a better look, although the shadow from the ruins that covered them made it hard. But she was able to see a few with their faces straight down in the dirt, arms and legs in ungainly positions.

_They're dead?!_

"But, then who killed them?!"

"Most likely each other. Those willing to steal what isn't theirs from strangers will often not be shy about stealing from their friends. Dividing among the fewer is better than dividing among the many, provided you survive to be the one of the few."

That made sense. Not a very nice thing to think about, but few things regarding kidnappers were.

Dias stood still, carefully looking over the ground covered in bodies. It was very, very quiet, and Rena didn't know why they were just hiding there behind the trees.

"Shouldn't we investigate?"

"It could be a trap."

"I thought you said they were killing each other for a bigger piece of the ransom."

"Maybe, and maybe not." Dias retreated back deeper to the trees surrounding the clearing, and Rena followed, wondering what he was doing. "Quiet, someone's coming," was all he said.

There were four of them. More bandits, Rena was sure of it. All were carrying short blades for weapons, and dressed in patchwork clothing. Rena could see them amongst the trees heading straight for the ruin entrance. They seemed to be in a good mood. Rena could hear what they were saying, but they were obviously laughing among themselves, not worried about anything. What would they do when they saw their comrades?

Just as they reaching the clearing that the bodies were left in, Rena could start to make out the voices of the group.

"Right, you two, tell the boss that that we've sighted intruders in the forest, but we've sent Yates and five others to take care of it. He'll track them, find them and take care of it, so there's nothing to worry about. Then meet us back here, and we'll have breakfast. I'm sure..."

There was a sudden silence, and Rena held her breath.

"What happened?!" screamed the group's leader, and the four of them rushed into the clearing. "Joss?! Mattar?! Are you alive?!" The four still living kidnappers frantically ran from fallen ally to fallen ally, their hands becoming bloody as they checked each friend for signs of life, but there didn't seem to be any hope.

_Well, this certainly clears up one thing. If it was infighting, these particular bandits aren't in on it._

"Draw your weapons!" commanded the small group's apparent leader. "You! Check the bodies for clues, and you two keep a look out! Watch your backs!" All four brandished their weapons at their invisible enemies. One knelt down to re-examine his fallen comrade, while the others searched amongst the trees that they could see.

Rena and Dias were fortunate that the Sealed Forest had such dense foliage that they were able to hide quite close to the clearing without being seen. Still, more than once she thought that they might have spotted her, but then the bandits looked in another direction, continuing his search for enemies.

"The boss isn't here," said the young bandit that was searching the dead in a nervous voice.

"Okay, you two go inside and see if the boss is okay, and stay together!" the leader said, pointing to the young bandit and one of the others. The bandits were still searching the edge of the forest, and Rena quickly pulled her head back behind a tree trunk. _They didn't see us, they didn't hear us. I hope._

Of course, such a thing was likely to have happen today eventually, but it wasn't the bandits she was worried about. She knew that Dias alone could easily take them if he had to, and Rena could help out if needed. It was whatever had slain the bandits. That was the unknown factor.

Another unknown factor, in the form of a young woman, suddenly appeared from the ruin entrance. She was about Rena's age, with long blonde hair, and dressed in an elegant white and pink dress. And that was combined with several pieces of jewellery around her neck and wrists, and even a few gems stitched into the dress. She was panicking, apparently running from something, and didn't notice the kidnappers until she was practically on top of them.

The bandits quickly surrounded the young woman, yelling at her and demanding her explanation for the recent deaths. "What the! Who are… oh you! What are you doing out here?! Wait; tell us what you know about this!"

"Who is that?" Rena asked. She certainly wasn't a bandit, and those clothes made no sense here. Whoever she was, she must be very wealthy to be able to dress like that. She felt Dias tense up while reaching for the katana at his side. Around men like that, who made their money by stealing and kidnapping, she was probably in just as much danger as she was running away from whatever it was inside. Judging from their words, the bandits must be somewhat acquainted with her, but more than the obvious fact that they weren't friendly it was hard to say just how that was. Then again, saying more was probably unnecessary.

"Don't know. These kidnappers may have more than just the children in their grasp," Was all Dias said in response.

Two of the bandits trapped the woman between them. The woman could only stutter some words out for an explanation. "It's… it's in there!" she said, pointing back inside the ruins, where Rena couldn't see.

"Look, if you don't tell me right now who did this, we'll forget all about the money, and take it out on your face!"

"Dias, we have to do something!" Rena said.

Dias nodded, and then leapt out from behind the trees, so quickly that Rena could hardly believe, and she scrambled to get out after him. Dias stopped himself just a little way out into the clearing when it became obvious that he had everyone's attention.

"Are you the one that did this?!" the bandit's leader said, using his sword to point at his fallen compatriots.

"No. But I have won't hesitate emulating it if you refuse to let her go and tell me where those kidnapped children are."

The bandit didn't seem to know what to make of this. Denying the slaughter that had already happened, while threatening another wasn't you'd expect out of anyone. Dias's hands were gripped to draw his sword at any instant, but he made no other sign of aggression that Rena could see.

The bandits ignored the woman now, and as a group, all four charged at Dias, blades held out in front. Rena instinctively stepped back from the danger to prepare herself mentally for the battle, but Dias was calm as a rock, and as the first one reached him, his sword flashed out and struck him across his stomach, felling him in one blow.

Without pause, Dias moved on to the next man, dodging to the side to keep himself from being surrounded, while at the same time using his scabbard to block his opponent's high to low blow while simultaneously swinging his own sword underneath.

The third bandit leapt over his fallen comrade to reach Dias, but it was a useless endeavour, as Dias slashed him fatally before he even reached the ground. Dias dodged his falling body in a smooth motion and advanced on his last enemy. The unfortunate man was now realising just what kind of foe he was up against, and Rena could see the rage draining out of his face, being replaced with desperation. If Dias saw it, he didn't care, as he didn't stop gave one last downward slash, fast enough that it forced his cloak and the dust at his feet to rise up and surrounded the two of the combatants. Rena thought Dias was too far from his opponent to strike him, but he was cut all the same, as if merely slashing the air had been enough to create a flying blade. By the time they settled back into silence, all four kidnappers were dead, just like ones they had found here.

_Oh gods..._

Rena knew Dias was good. When he had left Arlia those years ago, it was obvious to everyone in the village that he was talented in the use of a sword, and that it was only a series of unfortunate events that had given him the drive to practice. But this? Dias was felling armed opponents with no more resistance than grass. Rena could only remember Dias having a rudimentary knowledge of martial qi techniques when he left the village, yet that last attack was a clear symbol of his advanced progress. The entire battle could not have taken more than five seconds. Rena thought that being so outnumbered, Dias would need her help for the battle, either through her own martial arts or crest magic (restricted as it was in these woods), but she hadn't been needed at all.

"Ah… thank you," said a small voice from behind her. It was the young woman that had just exited the ruins. She must have somehow escaped the furious battle and come up behind her in the confusion.

"Umm… sure, we're glad you're alright. So, I'm Rena and this is Dias. Who might you be?"

The woman didn't say anything, but instead looked over Rena's shoulder, into the forest.

"A quiet one?" Dias commented.

"No, I'm just waiting," she said, not moving her gaze away.

"Waiting? For what?" Rena looked into the trees that the woman was looking at.

For a few moments there was silence. But just as Rena was about to repeat her question to the woman in frustration, three figures suddenly emerged from the greenery. Claude, Ernest and Philia.

"Rena?" Claude said. "You're here? And..." Claude's voice trailed off as he noticed over a dozen dead bodies in the clearing.

And while Claude's pace slowed as he took in the sight of destruction, Ernest's picked up as he took in the sight of the ruin. "Wow… that's quite impressive!" Ernest said. He didn't pay much attention to the defeated bandits until after he almost tripped over them, only then suddenly realising what must have happened here.

"If you're worried, don't be. I only killed four of them. The rest were already dead when we arrived," said Dias.

"I'm not worried! There's nothing to be worried about," protested Claude. Dias didn't understand the words, but it was obvious he got the gist of it.

"We ran into six bandits of our own back there," Philia added in words that Dias _did_ understand. "And we survived just _fine_; Claude and Ernest took care of them."

"Haha, well, I think Claude did most of the work," Ernest said. "He can have most of the credit."

"Two against six? Interesting."

"What's so interesting?" Claude said, clearly annoyed by Dias. He should have been happy, it sounded like Dias was impressed. "And anyway... whoa... Princess Rozaria?!"

"What's that?" Rena asked.

"It's her royal highness, Princess Rozaria, from the Kingdom of Lacuer," said Philia, pointing the young woman that they had just rescued from the kidnappers.

Rena's eyes widened at this information. "Wha-?! Princess?! How do you know that? Have you met before?"

"She's right. It is her. I saw her back in Krosse, when I was hiding from her in that alchemist's store," Claude said. "So, Philia was right, the bandits really did take her."

So, this princess was the one that Celine had outmatched. She was quite a beautiful lady, completely unblemished skin and large blue eyes, her face framed with well kept and long blond hair. She was as completely clean, quite a surprise considering the situation she must have been in this past day. Royalty was supposed to be like that, the old wives tales said, but it was kinda weird to see it like this.

But… if this was Celine's rival for Clyde, and Clyde looked like Claude, then…

"Umm... Princess Rozalia?"

"Yes?"

"I noticed that you haven't said anything about…"

"About what?"

"Well it's about Claude here. Does he look… familiar to you?"

"This handsome man? He bares some resemblance to someone I once knew, in his physical characteristics, but I can see he's quite different when you look at him properly."

_Different how?_ Rena, Celine, and even Claude himself had thought that he had looked almost identical to Clyde, or Prince Clauzer as Rozaria would call him. The same face structure, nose, mouth, eyes. Same shade of blond hair, although styled differently, but that could be fixed easily by giving Claude a good trim and making it a bit neater. What was she seeing that no one else could see? What as invisible to everyone, but obvious to her?

Claude found the attention somewhat embarrassing and turned away, while Ernest and Dias looked at each other and both shrugged in a mutual agreement of 'what are they talking about?'

"This is good and all, but we've still have to rescue the children of Marze," Dias said. If the fact that they had royalty in their mist had any effect on him, he wasn't showing it. "Unless our recently liberated newcomer has any new information that she would like to share?"

"Ah, yes. I do know that the bandit's have a few young children that they took from Marze inside with them. They aren't hurt, but these bandits aren't to be trifled with. Most of them aren't dangerous, but from what I can tell, their leader is really strong."

"Well, that makes sense. In an outlaw group, authority could be established and enforced through use of force and intimidation," Ernest said. "It's certainly not a democracy."

"No. I mean the leader is really, _really_ strong. And not just as a fighter, but also an incredible user of crests. Including the removal of the seal on these ruins that prevented entry to every scholar in Marze. I don't think you can win with any strategy other than surprise."

_She's really blowing up the image of this leader up. But I just saw Dias in action, and Claude is no slouch, especially with his Sword of Light as a triumph. Against the likes of Dias and Claude, no one could be that dangerous, surely._

"Fine. Was this leader the one responsible for the death of everyone here?" Dias asked. The idea made sense, someone alone would need to be incredibly powerful and skilled to take out all ten of them and survive.

"Yes."

"And your guard as well, am I right? The ones found outside of Marze?" Philia asked. "If a single person can take out all these bandits, then they could have slaughtered your Royal Guards as well."

"Yes."

"Geez… what kind of person is he?" Claude said.

"Kind of depressing when you think about it," Ernest added.

"Whatever. We have to press forward, no matter what she says." Dias said. "If he notices that the Princess is missing, he'll come looking for her. We should catch him unawares before then. Let's go."

Rena didn't know what they were going to find in the ruins with the missing children. But this rescue was meant to be a simple get in and out, but it kept getting odder. And as she walked into the Sealed Forest Ruins, the dark inside seemed to promise hiding even stranger things.

***

Claude purposely led the way into the ruins. His phase gun had a flashlight attached to it that he could use, but just as he was about to take it out and use it, he found himself walking into a well lit corridor. It was quite wide and tall, and the walls were made of a grey coloured stone of similar rough texture that the walls outside. These ones had smaller symbols engraved onto them, compared to those visible outside, but they seemed to have been made by the same persons. None of these symbols were recognisable to Claude, although he had to admit that symbology wasn't his specialist subject. But at the same time, he thought that they reminded him of something he'd seen before.

It was also very quiet. The only sounds that they could hear were their own steps and breathing. It was as if no-one had come this way for a very long time. The place was in practically pristine condition, there wasn't even any dust on the ground for him to disturb as he walked through. But this place didn't feel new, it felt like it had always existed. It was a bit foreboding really, as if the place didn't want him or anyone else to be there. The idea was silly, but that's what he felt.

"Hmm… I don't recognise the script," said Ernest, his hands running over the writing on the wall. Claude might be concerned over going places that he wasn't wanted, but Ernest seemed quite happy to trespass over the homes of the ancients, whoever they might be, to find out even the smallest detail. "But it doesn't look like anything I've seen so far on this plan-" Ernest cut himself short here, looking at the rest of the group. Obviously, he was about to imply other planets existed, a fact that everyone sans Claude should remain ignorant of, since they were of this underdeveloped planet. "I mean, it's unique to what I've seen so far in these lands. Unless someone else here knows otherwise?"

Ernest looked expectantly at the group, giving them an opportunity to give their opinions.

Rena stared at the letters curiously. "Hmm… I don't know. The curves on these letters seem a bit familiar, but I don't remember where I saw them."

"Actually, I think it kinds of looks like some of the things we found on Miccondia," Claude said. That was it. Miccondia was the place that this ruins reminded him of.

"Miccondia?"

"Yes, it's the… place I was examining before I arrived here."

"So, what do you remember, where you able to translate it?!" Ernest asked eagerly. Or was it desperately? _A bit of both really._

"Ernest, I'm not an archaeologist, or a linguist, or an anything-ist. That's not really my forte."

"No, I guess not," Ernest said, head down. But it came up again quickly. "Still, this is very interesting. I will defiantly have to make some records of this." Researchers were always like that, bouncing back from repeated disappointments with the promise of finding something next time. My mother is a bit like that too.

Ernest then started fiddling with something in his jacket. He was doing a bad job of hiding it, but he was trying to take pictures of the walls with his communicator while letting no one else see it.

"Umm… are you alright? What are you doing Ernest?" Rena asked.

"Oh, you barely even care about the UP3 Ernest, just admit it," Claude said. There was no point hiding something like that if it made everyone look. Rena and the others had seen enough as it was, with the phase gun, this wouldn't get him in too much extra trouble with the Federation. Hopefully.

Ernest stopped at looked expectedly at everyone else. Rena was the only one that seemed really confused by his actions. Dias was typically dismissive of it, Philia and the princess Rozaria were both looking blankly at him, not giving anything away about their thoughts. _They're being polite._

"Ah well, if you put it that way," Ernest said, and he started taking photos and scans of the symbols openly. He was now smiling, and humming some tune as he worked, pleased that Claude agreed with him. _But really, he was just acting that way until I made myself agree with him. He was always going to break the UP3 here, and he just wanted me to approve of it._

"He's just making some records of the place Rena. But we really should find this leader and the children before they find us," Claude said. "Rena, can you ask Rozaria which way we should go after this?"

Rena repeated the question to Rozaria, who nodded in response. "Yes. This is definitely the way we should go." The princess answered, and started walking to the end of the corridor, which was now in sight. _She must be quite brave to come along with us. Most people would run away from their captors if given the chance to escape like she had._

The corridor ended into a large open chamber. The ceiling was quite tall. In fact, it was so tall, that while Claude wasn't sure, it might even have been taller than what the building looked like form the outside. The floor was the now a metal with small regular indentations. And in front of him, Claude could see a smooth and tall wall, not made of stone as the one in the corridor, but made of a blue-grey metal. These ones weren't covered in the grand symbols of the previous corridor, but mostly blank, except for small sets of symbols that Claude could tell were signs. Obviously they were directions for the previous inhabitants, but this script was of no use to Claude. The wall had several doors in it, all of them closed. To the sides, Claude could see further passages, leading away into further rooms. It seemed like it could be quite easy to get lost in here.

"This way," Rozaria said, and she immediately started to walk to one of the doors. And when she got there, there was a collective gasp by everyone as the door opened by itself, siding to the side.

_This ruin has automated doors?! And they still work?!_

"What?!" Rena said, jumping backwards. "Who opened that?!"

"It's fine. It's meant to open when you get close to it," Rozaria said.

"Yes, that's right. But, how do you know that?" Claude asked. Rozaria shouldn't have any knowledge of such a thing!

"The bandit leader told me about it."

The bandit leader did? But that meant he could almost certainly not be of Expel. But what would an offworlder be doing here, kidnapping little children? Money would be irrelevant, but the perhaps the Book of Secret Seals? What could be in that book that was so valuable? And why take the princess? And those other ransom conditions? If this person, who must have taken over leadership of the bandits, wanted that book, why not come in with overwhelming firepower and just take it? What kind of person where they up against?

"Um, guys," Ernest said, apparently coming to the same conclusion. "I have a very bad feeling about this 'leader'. We need to be very careful."

"We must go on," Dias said, sensing everyone's hesitation, even if he didn't understand all the words. Not a difficult task given the lack of speed that everyone was now making. Of course, his hand was already on his sword, ready to draw it out again at any instant. That must be what great tension passed for in his range of expressions.

Dias was right about continuing though. They had to continue. Claude had to find out what this person was. He might not even have to get to the Sorcery Globe to leave this world, if this bandit leader could already do it.

But he wasn't ready for what he saw behind the door. When he stepped through, he found himself surrounded by stars on all sides. He was standing on an invisible floor, and underneath his feet, hundreds of kilometres below, he could see the white clouds covering the blue seas and green forests of a planet. The curved sphere of Expel, marked against the blackness of the star ocean.

Somehow, he had walked from the surface of Expel, and into space.

* * *

**Dictionary: Qi**

Qi can be described as a kind of spiritual force that flows through people, and can be channelled outwards as a physical energy. Martial art training is especially effective at training a person to use this, allowing such practitioners various ways of utilising it in battle, but there are others ways as well. Examples of qi usage range from simple breathing exercises that improve technique and stamina to enhancing the strength and speed of one's strikes, increasing one's stamina and resilience to ward off otherwise life-threatening injuries, and even the ability to create and project the energy as balls of flame and other objects. Naturally, this gives many great advantages in battle for those able to make use of it.

There are some suggestions that the using qi is somewhat like symbology, as they both involve channelling energy as directed by the user, qi through a person's own body, and symbology through a pre-made symbol. It is certainly true that interest in qi resurged upon the discovery of symbology as a new force of nature. Of course, there are also many that say the two practices have nothing to do with each other.


	24. C2 17 Protoform

**Chapter 2-17: Protoform**

**SD 266-06-11**

This wasn't possible, was it? That he could have somehow just walked onto a space station. From the surface of _that_ underdeveloped rock?! Along with everyone else, Claude stood stunned into silence by the fact that he was apparently standing out in the middle of space. Of course, he knew it wasn't in space itself, since he was not suffering the side effects of being in a vacuum, like dying, and there was still gravity of sorts, but it looked like he was not standing among the stars themselves.

Ernest broke the silence. "Well, it's not an illusion. According to the scanner, we are about thirty-four thousand kilometres above the planet's sea level. But the gravity is equal to what it was on the surface," he said, finishing the use of his scanner.

So it was true. They had reached space. It was not quite the method that Claude had been intending, but they'd done it.

The view of nothing special compared to what Claude had seen before. Immersive views of the universe were not uncommon when you lived aboard a spaceship such as the _Calnus_. Or in any ordinary school, every child growing in the Federation would likely experience a sight like this a few times. But the first time Claude had seen it, it made a great impression on him. It told him that the universe was really, _really, really_, big. The first time Claude had experienced such a view, when Claude was seven, he was told that for every point of light he could see, there were millions of trillions that he could not, and Claude found it overwhelming.

Is that what Rena was thinking now? She would never have seen anything like this. She was standing there, mouth agape at the spectacular view, unable to say anything. Only a few hours ago, they had both awoke in a backwater town that didn't even have electricity, and they had walked to an immersive viewing platform

"What is going on?" Dias asked. Somehow, it was nice to know that there was something incredible enough to remove that non-committal expression from his face. It might have taken a trip into several thousand kilometres up and into space to do it, but now Claude knew it could be done.

"It would appear that we have far above the planet," Ernest said. "Like we were on an orbiting station, or at the top of a tall tower or space elevator. Directly below us is a landmass that is shaped like Krosse, as I remember from the maps, so we are directly above the ruins that we entered. It's truly amazing that a planet of your development has a secret like this."

"I'd say it's an orbital base. I can't see any structure between here and the planet," Claude said, looking downwards underneath his feet. And obviously, they would have seen it from the ground too, had a tower been there. They might be standing on something solid, but it looked completely invisible. Below him, the planet was visible, but there was nothing they could see linking them to the ground. The only structure that they could see were two grey doors, and small lights above them so that they could be seen in the darkness of space. One was the door that they had just entered this room through, and the other across from them.

"We must have passed through some sort of artificial wormhole get up here then," mused Ernest.

"Claude?" Rena asked, starting to become more nervous. "What's happening? What's an orbital base, and… and…"

"It's alright Rena," Claude said. "Trust me, we're fine." _I guess._

"But… I mean…"

"Look, trust me. Everything is okay."

"Who would have thought that you'd find something like this in a place like this?" Philia said. "Princess Rozaria? I take it that you knew about this before you led us here?"

"Yes. I've been here before. I crossed this room with the invisible walls when I first came here, escorted by twenty kidnappers."

"Really. So the bandits knew about all this?" Rena asked, still looking around rather than at the princess she was speaking to.

"Oh, I'd say only the leader knew. All the others were amazed just like you are now. But the leader kept them in-line."

So, this leader must have been quite familiar with this sort of thing then. This said quite a lot about them. Looking out into space like this wasn't something you got over quickly. It was a humbling view for all but the most egotistical, a sign of how little a single person mattered in the grand scheme of things.

"What is _that?_" Claude said to himself as he gazed at a group of stars near the horizon of Expel.

At first, Claude had thought that they were ordinary stars, but the way that these lights were arranged in a perfectly straight line, emerging from the planet's surface, made Claude think otherwise. That portion of the planet, to the west of their current location, far above the skies of Expel, was still covered in the black of night. The lights twinkled in intensity, something that the distant stars should not be doing if Claude really was viewing them far above Expel's atmosphere. In addition, they were several different colours, and while stats might come in blue and red, the green lights were not a standard star colour.

_They have to be artificial lights._

But Expel was an underdeveloped planet. They should be hundreds of years away from making any structure that tall! It had to be another ruin, created from this same civilisation as the one they were standing in now.

"Say Ernest. Do you think that's a tower? Or a space elevator?" Claude asked his space-faring colleague.

"Hard to say. Neither should be here," Ernest replied. "Might it have something to do with the Sorcery Globe or the rumoured demon war? I haven't heard of any gigantic ruins like it in the stories I've heard."

_We definitely should investigate it then._

"Rena, that big land, it's to the west of were we are. Which one would that be?"

"West of The Krosse contintnent? The biggest landmass in that direction would be Ell."

"Where the Sorcery Globe is," Claude muttered to himself. So they did have something to do with each other. "And are there ruins in Ell? Like this one?"

"Well, there are ruins in Ell, of course, but I don't think any of them let you view the stars quite like this one. I haven't heard of any such thing."

"I see."

_Well, I was going there anyway. But it is certainly something special. If I can't find anything here, then I have to reach Ell more than ever._

"While the view is nice and appropriate, didn't you say you had other things to do?" asked Rozaria, who was already walking across 'space' to the other door that was visible, the hem of her skirt trailing along on an invisible floor.

***

This next room Claude came to was very large, but also divided into sections, with large blocks that ran all the way up to the ceiling that was 20 or so metres above them. Just below the ceiling were a maze of bronze-coloured pipes, some a metre wide. What the pipes were for Claude couldn't guess at, for this room was just as silent as every other.

Scattered within the room were dozens of familiar structures. There were circular indentations in the floor, each large enough for a few people to stand in, surrounded by tall thin structures, each of which had a console attached. These machines, Claude knew what they were; he had seen their like before. They were the same as the machines that had transported him from Milokeenia! It was here, right in front of him. A way home!

"What's that?" Rena asked, pointed to something on the floor.

Claude had been so focused on the teleporters, that he had ignored everything else. But what was Rena pointing at? From this distance, it looked like an ugly grey mass. Claude followed everyone else up to it, a

"What the heck?" Ernest said, pulling the two bodies apart.

"These weren't here before," Rozaria said.

The two bodies had a dull grey and very smooth skin, and they were of average height for an adult human person. Completely hairless, they were also strangely sexless, and both seemed to be half way between each gender in body shape. More strangely, they didn't have any sort of face, only slight indentations where the eyes should be, and no mark of ears, nose or mouth at all.

"Anybody have any idea? Philia asked. No one answered.

Claude couldn't figure out what they were supposed to be, or what they were for. They had emotionless faces, and were without any sign of life such as breathing or a heartbeat. Like life-sized dolls, or something. Except that you wouldn't be able to play dress up with them easily without some paint for the skin, there weren't many humanoid species that had grey skin quite like this.

"Let's ignore this for now, we still have children to find," Philia suggested when no one else could think of what to do. And yes, while there were a lot of distractions, they shouldn't forget the real goal. This was a dangerous place, and the sooner they got the kids away from that danger, the sooner Claude could investigate what he really wanted to.

"Well, this place just keeps getting more and more interesting," Rena said.

"It's because I'm here. My life is always interesting," said Rozaria. "I guess you could say its part of who I am. I'm an important person, which means that the common people will want to talk about me. And when they do, it needs to be interesting. Or they'll end up talking about someone else."

Claude stared at the girl as if she was mad. Perhaps more accurately, there wasn't much of an 'if' about it.

"That's really self-centred you know," said Rena. _That's a polite understatement._ Combined with all the bizarre behaviour that Rozaria was displaying, he was beginning to wonder just what was wrong with her. _Maybe this is the inbreeding at work._

Rozaria didn't seem to care. "I can't help it if they have nothing but gossip to fill their lives."

"No wonder Clyde dumped your ungrateful arse," Claude muttered under his breath. He was sure he had spoken so softly that no one could hear him; even Philia who was right behind him should have been barely unable to hear it. Rena and Ernest showed no reaction, and Dias couldn't have understood him anyway. Yet, the princess Rozaria, who was well ahead of them and lacked a translator necessary to understand him, suddenly glared in his direction. It was really quite scary. _Did she hear me, or is it something else? But there _is_ nothing else._

Still, she didn't actually say anything back, and after a moment, she turned around again, walking towards one of the teleporters on the right side of the room. She was already about half-way there when Claude realised that there was something in the teleporter already, yet another collapsed body. This place was full of them.

Along with Rena and Ernest, Claude quickly jogged up to the teleport to see what was special about this one. Princess Rozaria was already standing over the body, looking down on it with an expression of contempt.

"Do you recognise him, Rozaria?" Rena asked.

"Yes. This is the bandit's former leader."

"Former is right. What happened to him? Did his killer escape through one of these tepeorters? But they don't look like they've been activated recently," Ernest said, kneeling over to examine the corpse and the device he was in. What remained of the man was a mess; someone had stabbed this man dozens of times, far more than what could be considered remotely necessary to kill him. His face was beyond any sort of recognition. But his clothes, stained with his own blood, were made of a similar fabric that Claude recognised as the same as the other bandits. If the leader was from another world, he wasn't dressed like it.

_Just what in the blazes is going on here? Who is killing everyone?_

The bandit's body looked like it was on top of something. Ernest slowly pulled a gold rod, about a half a metre long, and decorated all around. Since it was under the dead bandit's body, it was also naturally covered in his blood.

"Excuse me, but that belong to me," Rozaria said, quickly snatching it. "It's my sceptre. The bandits took it from me.

"You carry that around? It's that kinda heavy to carry everywhere?" Ernest asked.

"It's very special. And it's made of gold on the outside, so of course it's heavy. I'm used to it." And to prove it, Rozaria lifted it and started shaking it without any display of trouble, being careful to make sure none of the blood on it fell on her. "Do any of you and a towel or the like?"

_That kind of dissonance can't be healthy._

After the initial shock in coming to this place, Dias had been quiet. He'd been quietly observing things so far, trying to regain his composure while standing back along with Philia. He probably felt uncomfortable being huddled around the dead body with everyone else, and not because Claude thought he disliked dead bodies. But now he suddenly spoke up with a point that Claude couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it before Dias.

"Tell me, if they wanted to steal you sceptre for money, then why does your dress still have the jewels embedded in it?"

That was a very good point. Her very expensive looking white and pink dress was lined with small gemstones, along with several larger and prominent ones. A very eye-catching piece when Claude had first seen it, which was of course the point. Showing wealth and power are very effective methods of gaining wealth and power, as they say. But the question, simple though it was, was enough that the young princess seemed not to be able to answer it instantly. Unlike everything else so far.

"Umm… well, you see… it's just that they would take them later anyway. So, I guess they didn't see the point in taking them right away. I mean, the dress is worth more as a whole, but I wouldn't have anything to wear if they took it from me now."

"Yes, I can definitely see how thieves would have too much honour for that," Dias said dryly.

"Well then if you refuse to believe, I have nothing to suggest. It will have to remain a mystery for the time being."

"Hmph."

Did Dias suspect that Rozaria was hiding something? Surely he must have. Her actions were completely nonsensical by any measurement. He had thought that Philia was a bit odd in wanting to come on this mission, and her over reliance on Claude for protection (which she claimed not to need due to Dark Sphere not being in her future), she was quite sane compared to the princess. Really, what kind of person would willingly walk right back into the lair of the one that kidnapped them, no matter what guard they had? Even worse, she made the leader out to be some sort of monster, who was now dead from something even worse perhaps, and she wasn't even concerned. There was something very wrong with her.

"Rena. Come here a minute." And without waiting for her to reply, Claude pulled at her arm to drag her over to Dias and Philia, where they could talk without the princess overhearing. He'd rather have Ernest there too, but he was still examining the teleporter and the body in it.

"Rena, don't you think there's something suspicious going on? With our princess Rozaria? Maybe she's a fake planted by the bandits to distract us."

"Well, I suppose so, but she did say she recognised Clyde right?"

"That was after you brought the subject up. She could have faked it easily," Dias said.

"I know that," Claude said.

"I didn't say you didn't."

Against his baser urges, Claude decided not to reply to that.

"Well, why don't we ask her about it?" Philia said. "What have you got to risk?"

_That's reasonable. First thing is to let Ernest know about it, if possible._ He was still with Rozaria, in the teleporter looking at the dead leader's body. What else did he think he could learn?

"Ernest, are you sure you want to keep standing in there?" Claude yelled to him. "Anyway, I want to ask you something. Can you come here a minute?"

"It's fine. I'm not going to activate this by accident, if that's what you're worried about," Ernest answered, not looking up, or appreciating what Claude was trying to do. Was the dead man really so interesting? No, it was probably more the teleporter itself, now that he thought about it. It was quite an interesting machine, and Ernest naturally had just as much an interest in getting it to work as Claude did.

"He won't have an accident, I assure you," said Rozaria suddenly. "This machine won't work without an explicit spoken instruction to activate."

"Why's that… wait… you understood Ernest without a translator?!"

_No native of this planet should understand the Terran language! And that could only mean the leader of the bandits was…_

"Oops. Ah well, I know you were probably about to figure it out anyway." Rozaria said, sounding quite pleased with herself. "So it doesn't really matter. Computer, set a random spacetime receive coordinate and activate a one-way teleportation!"

The teleporter started to glow with a pale blue light, and in only a few seconds it would activate, sending its contents to another time and place.

"Ernest, get out of there!" Claude yelled, while also dashing towards him.

Of course, Ernest already knew this, the gaping mouth of his face made this clear to everyone. He was scrambling to his feet in an attempt to escape the teleporter before he was sent to away.

But the princess had already prepared for that. Just as Ernest was about to make a leap to safety, she viciously swung her sceptre at his mid-section, causing him to fall back on top of the dead bandit, clutching his stomach in pain. And then the light overcame him, and in a bright blue flash of light Ernest was gone, leaving empty space in his wake.

"I think this quite exciting," Rozaria said as she slowly turned around. "I think that…"

She was interrupted she suddenly found herself having to guard against Dias' sword with her sceptre. The blade made a loud ring as it clashed against Rozaria's makeshift weapon. But despite his overwhelming size advantage, Dias was unable to make Rozaria concede her ground through brute strength.

"Some people just don't appreciate the stories I try to weave…"

"So, it was you," Dias said, drawing his sword back, and then slashing at her again. "You're the one who killed all those bandits, and the royal guard as well, if that is what they are."

The princess dodged by first leaping backwards, and a second larger one upwards, all the way to reach the pipes overhead. The dress didn't seem to hamper her movement at all. "Of course I did. And yes, that really was the royal guard for me, Princess Rozaria. Extremely well trained fighters as would be expected to defend the life and honour of my royal highness, but that didn't help much against a surprise attack from the one they thought they had to defend." The princess then ran off under the shadows above, the echoes of her footsteps making it difficult to determine which way she went.

"Where did you send Ernest?!" Claude demanded, yelling up into the air.

"What part of 'random' don't you understand, fool?" was the reply. She sounded quite pleased with herself. "Well, he's probably safe on a planet somewhere, I'm sure a device like this wouldn't drop him the middle of space, or something like that. Of course, _which_ planet, and _when_, it something I don't know. You can waste the rest of your short lives searching for him, like that witch who stole what was mine."

"By 'that witch', you mean Celine?! How do you know about that?!"

"Because I've been watching you for quite some time. And I might just have a friend in Dark Sphere. I used to think that Dark Sphere had betrayed me, but perhaps I was wrong, and it wasn't Dark Sphere that was the traitor. So now I have a test, to determine intentions. What does Dark Sphere really want? And everyone else? To help me? To give Clauzer back to me? I must find out. And then this universe will return to the way it should be."

"Tell me about Celine! And Clyde!"

"His name is Prince Clauzer!" Rozaria spat back. That was one topic that Rozaria clearly wasn't happy about.

"Where are they?!"

"Oh, why? She's gone from this world. But if you really want to see her again, I'm sure I can convince Dark Sphere to re-introduce you. If you are really intent on entering and never coming out. If you want to live the rest of your life in there, be my guest! Only, it's too soon, and I don't plan on that day being today!"

Fed up with her taunting, Claude fired his phase gun a few times up into the air, in the direction that he thought her voice was coming from. The shots impacted against the ceiling, and the princesses steps could still be heard echoing against the metal pipes in the darkness after the shots. She could hide up there forever.

"Coward! Why don't you come down here and fight?!" Rena yelled. She sounded even angrier than Claude had.

"Why? The only truth is what I tell everyone after I leave this place alone. That's what really matters. And even if you survive, they believe my royal highness a thousand years before they listen to a word from your common tongues."

Growling, Rena raised her hands into the air, and started twisting her fingers back and forth in preparation for a symbol. Momentarily, the symbol appeared in front of her, glowing, followed by a bright light that lit up the room. The ceiling was now clearly visible, and Claude spotted the shadow of a humanoid among the pipes. He quickly aimed at the shadow and fired several shots. And at the same time Dias did _something_. Claude wasn't quite sure what it was and now wasn't the time to really examine it, but Claude watched Dias swing his sword up the air, and somehow the pipes above were cut open. There was a cry from up there, but it was drowned out by the sound of splintering collapsing metal. Claude had to jump backwards to avoid a whole section of the overhead pipes that spilt and collapsed to the ground. Rozaria did not appear to be amongst it, but they could not have missed by much.

"Arrr, you cheat. Three against one is not fair!"

_Well, four, but I guess Philia won't be helping with the fight part._

"I always obey rules when battling people who break them," Dias said flatly. That stoicism was really irritating no matter whom he spoke to, but perhaps it would be useful as a taunt.

"Is that so? Fine. Look behind you, and we'll even up the odds slightly."

What was behind? Claude turned to see the two grey bodies, no longer lifeless. They were now slowly making their way towards them. They were still more than several paces away, and having difficulty making the distance. They moved with exaggerated jerked motions, as if they had never walked a step in their life before now. Their arms swung wildly with each step, and each leg was lifted high in the air, _then_ moved forward very deliberately before being placed surely on the ground, and only then did their body move ungainly forward.

"These are protoforms, you can think of them as blank slates that are obeying my mental commands," explained Rozaria. "They were a gift to me."

"I don't like the look of this," Philia said. "I think I'll go hide in a corner out of the way." But Philia didn't actually make a move away.

"Okay, and look for those children if you can while you're at it!" Rena said. And now, with permission, Philia backed away, and quickly disappeared from sight behind the vast arrays of ancient (yet working) technology.

Another fight looked inevitable. Luckily, these creatures looked slow and clumsy, not much of a challenge. As well, whatever they were, they were neither intelligent nor humanoid, so Claude knew he wouldn't have any compunction about not holding back.

"Any ideas on they are?" Rena asked in low tone.

"None," Claude replied. Dias only shook his head. But Rozaria also heard the question and started boasting her knowledge and superiority again.

"What you see before you is the most basic state of a new person."

_A new person?_

"Of course, not all people come from protoforms such as this. Only a very select few do. I assume you actually know where most babies come from, unless you are even more stupid than I thought. In which case I must truly blame your parents for fostering such ignorance amongst the wider world. But I can forgive them." Rozaria made a quiet chuckle at this last comment before continuing. "We shall ignore that for now. What concerns us is what you see before you now, the form that we start in."

_We?_

"Though they start blank, they can be moulded into a form of their creators liking. What do you think? Rena, would you like it if I made one with Claude's lovely face? Such a handsome face, with such bright blue determined eyes. I wanted a face like that, once. And that witch took it away. Should we have another?"

"What the heck are you yammering about?!" Rena yelled back.

"Oh, is the other face the one you want? I could do that too, but they'd have a lot of hair to grow first, it might take a while. See, I told you that I'd been watching you for a while."

"Shut up." Rena now sounded frustrated for some reason.

Claude had enough for the conversation. Before the protoforms could finish half the distance, he fired his phase gun. In two quick shots, both were struck cleanly in the chest. But rather than a fall with a hole in them, they both merely paused for a moment before moving towards them again."

"Sorry, that won't work," taunted Rozaria. "The first trait I gave them was resistance to that weapon of yours. Dark Sphere knows all about the weapons of the Federation, and it would be boring if it was over so quickly. I suppose it's still boring as it is, so I'll teach them to run now."

_How do you teach someone to run _now_?_

Apparently, learning to run before learning to walk was actually rather instinctive, since both forms suddenly lost their ungainliness, and started sprinting to Claude's group as if they'd been runners all their lives. The grey figures came up so quickly that Claude had no time to prepare, and he was unable to block the first as it used the run to build and deliver a straight punch to his face.

The next thing that Claude felt was a bit light, combined with the green-tinted light that seemed to surround him. When Claude's vision stopped blurring, he found himself lying on the floor, several metres back from where he had started.

"Claude, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I think I'm fine," Claude said, rubbing his nose. He thought it would have been broken for sure after that that punch, but having a healing symbologist like Rena by your side was something to be grateful for. Especially since she was possibly the only one on the entire planet.

"Come on, we have to help Dias."

Claude looked past Rena to see Dias, sword out, dodging left and right to dodge the wide swings of his inhuman foes. They were trying to surround him, while Dias kept moving to ensure they both stayed in front of him. At the same time, Dias used his katana to great advantage, for the protoforms were unarmed and only their quick movements kept them from being sliced into pieces. They even seemed to be dodging strikes from Dias that were too far away to land, as if they feared the air itself.

"Right."

Claude stood up as quickly as he could, which was surprisingly easy, even after accounting for the fact he'd just had a good dose of healing done on him. Without hesitation, he charged back to the fray. The protoforms were ready though, even without looking away from Dias, one broke off to engage him instead. But since, they didn't have eyes in their faces, perhaps they didn't need to be facing him to know what he was about to do.

Together with Rena, he gave several punches to the strange entity, forcing his opponent into strange motions, including bending over almost completely backwards from a standing position and then springing back up again to counter attack. Claude was ready this time though, and caught his opponent's arm, trapping it just long enough for Rena to land a few punches and then finally a kick to the head. The protofrom fell lifelessly to the floor.

"Didn't get resistance to _that_, did you?!" taunted Claude.

"Truly, that was a lucky blow!" screamed Rozaria from up above. Claude looked up to see her grinning madly down on them. "But we don't go down so easily. We are the ones that last. They, like myself, will take their place in the world, and you will like it!"

It was only a few moments of respite, as the body of their enemy began twitching, pulling itself up. Slowly at first, as if waking up after a long slumber, stretching out it's muscles (although it didn't really look like it had any, the body of the protoform was devoid of defining muscles on any part of it's body). Deciding to not give the strange thing a chance to actually fight, Rena tried another roundhouse kick.

Claude wasn't really sure what happened next, but it seemed as if the creature quickly moved its whole body under Rena's kick like a limbo dancer, its whole body almost entirely reaching the floor, before springing back upwards in a split second. In a flash, it had lifted Rena off clear from the ground and threw her at him.

Claude could only make a half attempt in the time to try and catch her, but it was too quick, and they were both on the ground. The next thing he knew, the creature was bearing down on both them, so Claude panicked and shoved Rena away to the side, and used the momentum to push himself away as well, just in time to avoid a punch which landed between them.

As Claude got to his feet, there was a flash of light, which must have come from Rena trying to blind the protoform.

"That won't work fools! They don't need to see!" screamed Rozaria from above.

The protofrom was now standing still, waiting for Rozaria to finish enjoying her laugh.

"But do you?" retorted Rena, and then she used her symbology to make another magic flash of light directly aimed at Rozaria's face. Just before it disappeared in the white light, Claude saw that stupid smirk vanish from her face.

This worked out much better, as the protoform suddenly hunched slightly. _Of course, if Rozaria controls them, and she can't see, then these things can't fight!_

Taking the opportunity while he could, Claude went up and grabbed his opponent, and then repeatedly kneed it in the stomach as hard as he could. He wasn't sure how many times he did he struck, but this stupid thing was going to end right now, no matter how much it took.

When he finally had done enough, Claude let go, and the grey humanoid fell to the floor. And then, just to make completely sure that it wouldn't get up a second time, Claude lifted his leg into the air quickly, and then dropped it on the enemy, and it crashed against the floor with a loud thud. It was probably just his imagination, but Claude thought that just maybe, he'd hit the monster with enough force that the floor underneath it might have just cracked. Which was quite a bit satisfying in its own a way.

"Is… is it dead?" Rena asked, after a few moments of nothing but heavy breaths between the two of them. It seemed the enemy wasn't going to be able to fight anymore, thankfully. Now that the threat was over, Claude noticed that he'd been breathing quite heavily, but the enemy wasn't quite the danger he'd thought it would be. Yes, it had been quite strong and fast, but for a time Claude had been expecting something that was quite invincible. But it wasn't, and now Claude thought he could relax a little. Rena started another healing symbol for the two of them, which Claude felt was well deserved. Of all the things he had expected today, this was no where near the top of the list. Bandits demanding magical books and kidnapped children, not faceless monsters out in space.

Dias came up behind them, and Claude saw behind him the other grey shape of their enemy. Dias was wiping his blade down, but he couldn't see any blood on it. He wasn't breathing as heavily as either of them either. Dias seemed unconcerned with what had just happened. _How can he be so passive at a time like this?_

"Are you alright Dias? Do you need me to heal you?" Rena asked immediately, but she was already starting to create the healing symbol without waiting for an answer.

"It's not necessary," Dias said. Rather pointlessly, as it didn't stop Rena at all.

Claude heard something drop behind him, and he turned to see the cause of all their problems. "It will be _very_ necessary," said Princess Rozaria, her voice and face extremely controlled. But Claude could easily see that behind them, her anger was simply raging to get out. She held her sceptre out in front of her, ready for battle. "The evil witch paid the price, and now you will too."

* * *

**Dictionary: Wormhole**

A wormhole is effectively a shortcut through spacetime that joins two distance locations by a much shorter one. This short path can be travelled, allowing bodies to journey distances that would not otherwise be possible in such times, and therefore under relativity is a form of time travel, since it would employ faster-than-light travel. The mouths of the wormhole do not have to exist at the same time period, allowing another limited amount of time travel, including possibly affecting one's own past. Although this last one has yet to be tested experimentally.

The name was created by John Archibald Wheeler in SD−129 (1957 C.E.), although the idea was created before than in SD−165 (1921 C.E.) by Hermann Weyl.


	25. C2 18 Form of Ideal

**Chapter 2-18: Form of Ideal**

**SD 266-06-11**

_It was Princess Rozaria of Lacuer that instigated and carried out the whole kidnapping plot?!_

Rena could hardly believe it, even with the flat out admission of the woman in question, that she alone had killed her entire royal guard. Then the princess had convinced two dozen bandits into following her, which she used to kidnap and hold to ransom three small children from Marze. And she must have set the conditions for the ransom too, demanding that Celine, a woman she _already knew_ was no longer of this world, to deliver it. She had then entered a sealed ruin that not a single scholar from Marze (a town renowned for its scholars of magic) was able to do, and used strange devices of which she had never seen the like. And then, when a rescue attempt of the children was underway, she had betrayed and somehow killed a dozen of her own underlings. And after that, she had led Rena and her group here, through a room with invisible walls and made Ernest disappear in a flash of light.

And for what? What could she possibly have done all of this for? A single book could not be the answer, but Rena could not think of anything.

_Does her family know what she is doing?! Her kingdom?!_

_Has she done this before?!_

_How could such a thing even be possible?!_

But no matter what she thought about it, Rena was unable to deny the royal princess that was standing before them. Weapon in hand, ready to continue the fight where her giant featureless dolls with grey skins, or protoforms, as she called them, had failed.

The princess firmly grasped her sceptre with both hands, and then twisting it slightly, and then smoothly pulled it in two, revealing each half to be the handle for a short blade. Armed in both hands, she casually gripped each one, making it obvious her skill at handling them.

_This must have been the weapon that she used to kill all those kidnappers. How did she get it? And where did she learn to use it?_

Rozaria repeatedly slide her two blades against each other, making a noise that Rena found slightly nauseating. _It might be more the person than the sound._ The princess seemed to enjoy the effect it had on her, her eyes peering manically from behind the flashing blades. "Of course, we might learn one thing valuable from this. Will they accept this as suicide?" she said causally.

Rena got herself ready in a fighting stance, even though Rozaria was clear across the large room and would need to make twenty paces before the conflict could start. Claude and Dias clearly had the same idea, and a silence fell upon the makeshift battle arena.

_I hope Philia is still okay. And I hope she manages to find those children, wherever they are._ Rena didn't know if they were a match for a princess that claimed to have defeated multiple armed opponents, even if she did manage it through surprise, but if they weren't, then the non-combative Philia would certainly fall almost immediately afterwards.

The time for Rena to think to herself was over, as Rozaria suddenly broke from her mocking stance and rushed at Rena, crossing the distance far more quickly for someone in a dress like that should be able to, and forcing Rena to quickly step back to avoid being slashed with both blades. Rozaria immediately slashed again after missing the first time, but Dias and Claude were already intervening, and the battle fell into a three against one, with Rozaria swinging in wide circles to keep everyone at bay.

Being the only one armed, Dias naturally moved forward, taking an aggressive stance. His longer weapon made the princess wary, particularly with his technique of making the air itself slash from a distance. But in turn, Dias also had to be careful against someone skilled two weapons, lest one open his guard while the other went through. The two quickly stuck blades against each other, but Rozaria didn't look the least concerned.

Not to be outdone, Claude brought out his trump card, the Sword of Light, or phase gun as he called it, and fired a beam of light at the crazy princess. However, Rozaria dodged somehow, moving her body out of the way just before Claude fired, even though she wasn't even looking to see where to dodge. Like she had eyes in the back of her head. Claude seemed somewhat stunned that Rozaria had done this, but quickly recovered and fire several more shots. Yet again, even despite being occupied defending against Dias' blade, she started twisting her body to avoid the light beams before Claude was even firing.

_Maybe… I could do that too. I can create light to stun people, so if I focus my light magic, perhaps it could burn like Claude's Sword of Light._ _And she can't possibly dodge everything at the same time._

Rena quickly made the glowing crest appear in front of her, and fired her own light beams from it. Whether it was a lack of training, or insufficient will, they didn't quite work nearly well she had hoped, and the princess didn't even have to try avoiding the attack.

Still, the combined forces were clearly enough, as the princess seemingly decided to change tactics. She leapt up and backwards into the air, and then came down to pierce the ground with both blades. The ground reacted by violently shaking, and then contorting to form giant spikes in a wall around her. Rena was taken by surprise and barely managed to leap back in time, but Dias, who was the closest, didn't have that of a luxury, and the metal that made up the floor and the new weapon sliced through his leg while he was in the air.

"Dias! Are you alright?!"

Rena could see a trickle of blood from Dias' leg. Rena didn't wait for Dias to say anything, and instantly went to cast a healing symbol on it. At the same time, Claude fired several more light beams, keeping Rozaria from moving out from behind her defensive wall and interfering.

"Thanks," Dias said, once the healing crest had done its job, and he immediately got back into his fighting stance, ready to continue. Rena also went back to focusing on her opponent, trying to think more about what she was up against.

_So she knows how to channel qigong into her fighting techniques as well?! Is there anything she doesn't know?!_

"How does a princess fight so well?!" Rena demanded. "You'd think the existence of a warrior princess would be common knowledge!"

Rozaria smiled from ear to ear before answering. "Learning and training is for the ungifted masses! Those miserable fools that go through short lives knowing nothing! I already have all the skills I want, when I want them!"

Rozaria paused in her proud display for a moment, and then continued in a slightly quieter voice.

"I am so disappointed in you and your kind. You have the potential, but all I see from you is piddling crest magic when you could have so much more. I suppose it is all that you deserve though. And you, Claude. What is this pathetic attempt at combat I see? And you," she said, looking at Dias. "I guess you've put in the effort, but don't you see the difference between people like you and me? I don't need any of that, and I'm still better than you, as you've just felt first hand, and I always will be."

"But why are you fighting us?! Why did you do all this?!"

"I'm fighting for my world and my ideas! You chose to side with that witch, and worse, you are a cancer and an aberration of those ideas. And all those you who deviate must either conform or be removed. My legacy will live everywhere and forever!" And with those words, Rozaria leapt over the thorny wall and back into the fray.

"She freaking nuts," Claude managed to say before Rozaria started cutting at him. Using the blades as a decoy, she got Claude to cover his face, and then used the chance to knee Claude hard in the stomach.

"You don't seem too resistant yourself!"

Rena saw Claude instantly collapse in pain, and as soon as she went to aid him, Rozaria spun around quickly, and the next thing Rena knew, she was on the floor. She tried to re-orientate herself, but it was a few moments before she could do anything more than stand on her hands and knees.

Rena forced herself to concentrate inwards. It would leave her slightly unaware of the environment for a moment, but she needed to heal herself and then Claude. She would have to trust that Dias would be able to keep the surprisingly skilled princess occupied on his own.

When she was up and ready to fight again, she could see Dias intensly engaged in single combat, their weapons clashing loudly against each other in rapid-fire sequence. She could see that he was having the worst of it as well, he suffered several cuts on his body, and while Rozaria's clothes were also sliced, she didn't seem to be bleeding out of any of them.

Rena charged at her enemy, hoping that the princess would be too distracted with Dias to fend off her attack. But the fatigue was catching up to her, and Rozaria spun and hit Rena back to the floor before Rena could get a single full punch out.

Standing right in front of her, Rena could see Claude firing his Sword of Light at the advancing princess, but her erratic motions made it impossible to Claude to aim with any degree of accuracy. The princess then quickly threw one of her short blades, forcing Claude to dodge, an opening long enough for Rozaria to clear the distance between them, and slash at Claude's arm with her remaining weapon. Crying in pain, Claude was helpless and the princess stuck him hard, and. Claude collapsed down next to Rena.

"My royal highness is getting quite irritated!"

For a second time, Rozaria made the ground beneath her into a weapon, but Dias was faster this time and managed to avoid the wall of sharp metal that suddenly protruded from underneath. Ignoring him, the insane princess instead slowly approached Rena for what would surely be the last blow.

Rena had just given herself yet another dose of self-healing magic, but her ability to heal injury was starting to fall behind the accumulated damage. The best healing that Rena could do, the type that made sure that a fixed bone wouldn't fracture again the instant any pressure was place on it, took more time and effort on her part than she'd been able to give. Today, she'd been forced to use her unique ability more than anytime prior in her life, and she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep up before exhaustion set in. Was it a lack of practice and stamina? That didn't really matter right now. She knew that she wouldn't have the stamina to fight off her opponent this time.

"Agh! Why won't you just give up already?!" the princess screamed as Dias had managed to work his way around and start the fight again.

Rozaria _grabbed_ Dias's katana with her empty hand, seemingly sacrificing it to ensure an unimpeded strike against her persistent opponent. It worked, and the blood rained down from her hand, but Rena could see that Dias was now defenceless against this tactic.

This was her last chance, so Rena, still on the floor, reached out and grabbed out at Rozaria's foot, as she was attacking. Seemingly with the same idea, Claude mimicked the action at the simultaneously. Thrown off-balance, she looked down to see two already defeated opponents making a last ditch attempt to fight.

And in that moment, Dias stuck his blade through the princess's stomach.

Rozaria just stood there, eyes wide open, with the sword sticking through her gut allowing her royal blood to stain her once magnificent dress. It was like her mind was trying to comprehend the fact that she had been fatally wounded, and until it did so, she was unable to do anything.

_Please, it must be over now…_

Wordlessly, she gripped Dias's sword with both hands, pulled it out and then let both it and her own remaining weapon drop, her face still stuck in blank shock. Ignoring everyone else, she then walked over to a nearby wall and slumped against it, her hands uselessly trying to stem the bleeding. Only once she was sitting on the floor did her mouth start to move, but it was only mouthing silent words.

Rena was exhausted, but at least it was finally over. _Please, let it be over._ She had cast her healing and light magic several times today, and she was really starting to feel it. She desperately wanted a long rest before doing anything else, but even if the fight was over, the kidnapping situation wasn't.

Rozaria slumped herself against the wall, and started to cough up blood.

"So... I won't let… you win."

"It's a bit late for that," Claude said between heavy breaths.

"Well, it appears that we both still have things to do," Rozaria said calmly. "System computer, shut down the main creation energy generator."

The room suddenly darkened, along with a quick and short lived hum that sounded out. The sound was unlike any Rena had heard before.

"What did you just do?!" Claude demanded.

"You'll see in about… thirty seconds. That's how much time you have to leave before this place becomes somewhere you _really_ don't want to be."

_Thirty seconds?! Is she lying about that?! But there's not time to find out!_

"Leave her alone! We're leaving now!" Claude said with a new burst of energy, grabbing Rena's arm and pulling her towards the door they had came in. Dias wouldn't have understood what he was saying, but the panic on his face made it clear

"Wait! What about Philia and the children?!" Rena said, looking around for them. Now that the battle was over, it would be safe for Philia to come out.

As it turned out, there was no need to worry, Philia was already waiting that the entrance to the room with invisible walls, along with three small children, two boys and a girl. All three looked under ten, and wearing plain miniature robes of a style similar to what their parents would be wearing. But Rena didn't have any time to focus on more detail than that.

"Hey, what's going…" Philia started to say, but Claude started pushing her towards the door.

"No time to explain, so grab a kid and start moving!" Claude said.

"You can't possibly expect me to _carry_ a child this big all that way!" Philia protested. It didn't really matter though. If Claude didn't think there was time to argue, then there wasn't time, so Rena grabbed the hand of one, the two guys took the other two, and Philia could run out empty handed if she wanted. The children looked healthy enough to run, and they would now have to. What mattered was that they all escaped. Philia didn't have to carry anyone.

They made a dash as quick as they could across the room with invisible walls, not taking the time to appreciate the view of the stars. Into the long corridor with symbols engraved in the walls, and then ahead they could see the green forest that surrounded the ruin.

Rena didn't dare to slow down at all, and along with everyone else, they ran out into the midday sun. The sky was perfectly clear, and not a star could be seen for all the blue. They'd made it. They were back in the clearing outside the ruin, there were surrounded by forest that would lead them back to Marze. There were the same bandits that they had found and defeated before coming here, slightly off to one side (and without saying, everyone moved away from them, lest the children get too close). They were back.

And now Rena had the time to realise that she was now too tired to do anything.

"Okay, just… let me lie down for a bit," Rena said. One of the young boys looked curiously at her, his round face showed no sign of injury. Still she should probably check, just in case.

"Hello. We'll take you back to your parents in a moment okay?"

The boy only smiled and nodded his head.

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

"No miss," he said. Then the other two children repeated his answer in unison.

"Okay, just stay still for a moment okay. I'm just going use magic to make you feel better."

The children didn't object, so Rena sat up and began trying a healing crest. But she couldn't get it to come out this time, and the children started giggling at her.

Rena tried her healing one last time. "It's no good. I can't do magic anymore. I'm too exhausted."

"It could also be the forest, don't forget," Philia said. "Magic doesn't work well in the forest near the ruin. Although it is interesting that it does work _in_ the ruin, but we can worry about that another time."

"Never mind that. I think we'll be safe here." He looked towards the sky.

"Hey mister, what are you looking for?" the other boy they had rescued asked.

"An explosion, or something. I think that's what she was implying, that the base would explode. Although, to be honest I'm not really sure what 'creation energy' is.

"Wow, that place is really going to explode?! And it's up there?!" All three kids started staring along with Claude, but with more anticipation.

So they stood there, looking towards the sky, first for a few minutes, and then a few more, and then a few more. The children started to get visibly bored, and started looking around at more interesting things. Although Philia made sure that they stayed away from the bodies of the dead bandits.

"Hmm… did she lie about that? Did we just chase ourselves out of that place for no reason?" Claude asked.

_If the princess has just made us run out for the purpose of exhausting us after losing, then she was one spiteful woman._

"Wait here," Claude said. "I'm just going to check it out." And he started walking back into the ruins.

While Claude was back inside, Rena though it time to introduce herself to the kids they had just saved. Just something simple. "Hi, my name's Rena. What's yours?"

"Colin!"

"Bart."

"Cecile."

All three seemed to be in good spirits, especially considering what they had just gone through. They were also full of energy, and they chased each other round in circles in some sort of game, while Philia continued to keep them away from the bodies of the dead bandits they had found before entering this place. Philia must have done the same thing back in the ruin when they were fighting the princess, as the children didn't seem worried at all. Rena didn't really like the idea of them being in view, but as long as Philia kept the children at a distance from the bandits, the kids would probably be alright.

"Dias, are you alright?" Rena asked. So far, he hadn't really said anything. And when the girl had mentioned her name, he was staring into the sky. But he was not looking for any exploding ruin, Rena was sure.

"It doesn't matter," Dias said. "She doesn't look anything like her."

"Don't worry Dias. I'm sure Cecille is smiling too from heaven."

"Heaven must be too far me to hear."

_You've just forgotten how to listen._

"It's no good," Claude said as he returned. "The long corridor doesn't work anymore."

"The corridor doesn't work? How does a corridor not work?" Rena asked.

"It suddenly stops at a dead end. That must be the point where we were transported up into the ruin. But the power is gone, so the wormhole that links this ruin with the orbital station is no longer functioning. And the station was up there too, so we can't activate it from down here. Damn!"

"I still don't really understand what that means."

"Yes, well, I guess that's to be expected. You'd have to live in my… that world for a bit to really get an understanding of things like that. But… damn! I wanted to use that teleporter! And I need access to figure out what happened to Ernest! Damn it all!" Claude visible started on trying to calm himself. "Okay, I'll explain. Ernest is... somewhere else. I don't know where, that stupid princess didn't even know. Possibly if we still had access to the room, we could work it out with time, but for now, we can't find out. Unless..."

Claude pulled out that strange device that he had, which he called a communicator, and started doing something with it. He had tried to hide it from Rena and everyone else initially, but ever since Krosse, it had become an open secret. Now, three children of Marze knew of it, although they would already have enough stories to tell their friends back home as it was.

"It's no good," Claude said in defeat. "There's no sign of him near here. All I've got is copies of the pictures that he took; Ernest must have sent them to me before the fight."

Rena didn't understand what Claude meant by picture copies, since she didn't see any pictures, or copies, or anything like that, but she felt that she'd bring the topic up at another time than now.

"So, basically, my goal hasn't changed to what it was before we left Arlia," Claude said. "Only now, there's more riding on it. Once I get back to the world I came from, I can get help, and… and they should be able to help us find Ernest, Celine and Clyde."

"They can do that?" Rena asked. If Claude had friends like that, then anything should be possible!

"I'll admit, it's a big ask, even for the Federation. But, it's the best chance we have. Anyway, we should probably head back. They must be worried about us back in Marze."

"Yeah." Rena felt that she had rested enough for now, and gestured to Philia to bring the children back in-line so they could start the journey back to Marze.

"Rena, wait," Philia said as they started off, holding her back from the main group while allowing and Claude and Dias took the children ahead. Although both of them would probably just claim Dias was walking to the same direction for the purpose of his job, regardless of what it looked like.

"What is it?"

"Before we go back to Marze, I want to suggest something."

"What's that?"

"This situation with Princess Rozaria. Please do not say anything about it when we get back."

"But… why?"

"The situation will need to be handled very delicately. The Elders will need to decide what to do. And that requires a fine touch, when you consider the potential international implications."

"What are you suggesting?! That we don't say anything?!" Rena couldn't believe that could be the right thing to do.

"I suppose that's feasible. No-one in Marze was actually aware of her presence here."

"Surely they must have been able to guess by now. There's a bunch of dead soldiers they were worried about, remember?"

"They still have a plausible denial if they need it though. There's no evidence that the bandits were responsible for the killing of her guard, so they could take it as a coincidence."

"So, you actually want us to not say anything?! We can't possibly do that."

Philia sighed in resignation. "No, I suppose not. But, we should make sure to tell them discretely. We approach the Elder's alone and tell them. Then they can decide what they want to do. We can't send the main populace into another panic; they'll have just recovered from the kidnapping problem."

"Well, alright," Rena said after thinking it over. Philia did make a good point. And it wasn't their town, so they shouldn't be going around making trouble in it. Rena didn't like the idea of not being totally open about Rozaria, but it was better to be careful for now, and decide with the Elders what to do about it later.

***

It was only an hour or so after they had returned to Marze, and Dias had already collected his money and was now collecting his things in order to leave. Claude found this behaviour rude, like Dias thought he was better than this town, and now that they didn't need him anymore, he was going to leave.

Of course, the rescued children had immediately dispersed to find their parents with glee, which was at least one good result from today. Then there was the welcome back, which Claude quite liked, even if he never really said anything during it. It was convenient, since he didn't have much to say. According to Rena, Philia was taking care of the situation with the Princess. Apparently, Philia had knowledge of dealing with 'uncomfortable' situations such as this one. When Claude pressed her to explain this, Philia refused to say anything. So Philia went off to see the Elders, while he had tracked Dias to his hotel room. Rena had already arrived, so now there were three of them in the cramped space.

It was a small wooden room with a single window, it was lacking in interesting features. He forced his eyes past the only bed quickly. It had been made up while they were out by the inn's maid, erasing any history of its previous use. It didn't matter any more.

Claude forced his hands to his side. Reciting his military training was good for preventing himself from fidgeting, and with Dias there right behind Rena, Claude didn't want to accidentally make any gestures that would imply he was talking about him. His words weren't going to sound very natural, but he could live with that.

"Rena, I want to say… I was sorry about before. I mean, Dias, is obviously highly skilled and… uh, skilled. I guess he had a point before, and we wouldn't... _definitely_ wouldn't have won without his help. Experience counts more than I thought. So I can see why, uh, you know. And he's your friend from long ago and all that. So I guess I want to apologise for before. Ummm... you won't tell Dias what were talking about, will you?" _It's a good thing that Dias can't understand me without a translator. He'd think me an idiot._ Dias was looking at him with a blank expression again, but his eyes seemed really focused, like they were intent on drilling a hole through Claude's mind.

"And I know that he's a traveller too, and I guess he's been to lots of places and might know something, so I guess. I think he makes me a bit nervous you know, like how he never comments on anything. And I won't be offensive and say anything about that, you know, but... I mean, I understand if you want him to follow you... us... you. I mean, not follow, but, you know, work with us-"

"I'm sorry Claude," Rena said, smiling. "But I can't understand what you're saying."

"She wanted me to try using the listening stone that you gave her," Dias said calmly. "But you needn't worry, I'm sure she's sorry too."

Dias then took the translator out of his right ear, and calmly gave it back to Rena, ruining any hope Claude had that Dias had just been joking and making up his words. He then took two steps to stand right in front of Claude. Looking down on Claude, still with the same emotionless expression, Claude found it hard to think. _Cripes, he's tall._

Claude tried to think of something to say, but he could only laugh nervously.

"That was a very 'interesting' thing you had to say. And I agree with you, many find it hard to take back what they say. You have a long way to go, but perhaps that determination you have is the right sort. Keep travelling with Rena, and I hope you find your friend Ernest and whatever else you are looking for."

_Oh what did I say?!_

"Well, I'll be going." Dias seemed to be ignoring everything Claude had just said. But that wasn't possible. Even now, his mind, hidden by a face that moved as much as a stone, must be turning over the words meant for Rena. "I'm heading to Lacuer; they're hosting a fighting tournament there that I have an interest in."

"You're going to Lacuer?!" Rena asked. "Even after what just happened?"

"I don't see how what just happened relates to the tournament in Lacuer. I'm sure we'll meet again."

Dias then walked out the door without another glace, leaving the two of them to stare at the empty door frame.

Rena was practically beaming. "I think Dias was very impressed with you. You think so too right?"

That _was Dias sounding impressed? I mean... argh. If Dias was even the slightest bit impressed before, he sure isn't now. Not after that... argh._ The scene was replaying over and over in his mind. Of all the ways it could have gone, the reality was the worst. And he couldn't get himself out of the cycle; it kept going back to the beginning.

"So, I was thinking," Rena continued, oblivious to Claude's mental misstep, "that now that everything is over, we should go find Elder Elgas and tell him everything."

"Umm… yeah." The sooner they were doing something else, rather than standing around in this room, remembering what he had said, the better.

***

"So you wish to tell Elder Elgas about his daughter? I suppose it can't be helped now," Philia said. They were standing outside in Elder Elgas's, and therefore Celine's, front garden. Their home was similar to the others, made from small grey bricks, and in a very squarish shape. It was two stories tall and noticeably larger than the others nearby, reflecting Elgas's high status in Marze. The garden was filled with quite a wide variety of plants, especially thin and winding vines that seemed to grow up around the house and upon the stone features such as the birdbath, but it was also kept neat and trimmed to prevent them from reaching to places they shouldn't.

"Yes, but there is one good thing," Rena said. "We have hope now. Do you remember what Rozaria said? She clearly believed that Celine wasn't dead. We can tell them what we know, that she's not lost, and Clyde too." Even just thinking about the idea made Rena excited, no matter how far away they were from actually getting them back.

"Do you think that's a good idea?" Claude asked. "I mean, we definitely are going to try, but we are up against something pretty big here. I wouldn't want to peddle false hopes to her parents."

_Statements like that might be important to say, but they sure are a bit depressing to think about._

"To be honest, Dark Sphere, it really scares me. But we have to do something; we can't let it go as it is. It was Dark Sphere that chose to interfere in _our_ lives. I'm still not sure what Rozaria wanted, and we never will now, since she's dead. And I'm not silly enough to think we can defeat Dark Sphere. But, if we learn and get stronger, perhaps we can save Celine and Clyde."

"Do you realise what you're saying?" Philia said in shock. "You must be mad. You actually want to challenge Dark Sphere. You can't do it. Dark Sphere has chased me for years, and you think that it will be easy?"

_That's even more depressing._

"Well, no. I guess not. But still, we have to figure out something."

Philia seemed resigned. "Well, alright then. It will prove a valuable lesson to observe, at the very least."

Rena knocked on the double wooden doors of the Elder's home. After a few moments, Elgas appeared in the doorframe. He was dressed again in a heavy long robe that covered everything but his face, but was lacking all the crest magic regalia that they had seen him with previously, when he was in public. There was a very brief moment of confusion before he recognised his guests.

"Ah, now I remember! I wanted to speak with you." He looked and sounded a bit younger than the first time they had met him, back outside in the fields where Princess Rozaria's royal guard had been found murdered. The good news in the village must have done wonders for him and his stress.

"Yes, we thought so," Rena said. He'd probably been waiting for this for a long time. "I think it's about time we told you and your wife about the Book of Sealing and how I came into its possession. It was in Krosse where I met your daughter and a man named Clyde. May we come in?"

***

Rena reflected on her next goal as she ate that night in one of the taverns in Marze. Philia had said that thanks to their work, they would be getting tonight's meal for free, courtesy of the village and that she insist on ordering for them. So now, Rena was eating this strange meat that was possibly the biggest meal she had ever had. Philia wouldn't tell her exactly what she was eating; only that it involved four different organs from three different animals. Whatever it was, it was obviously very well cooked, and decorated with in a mint sauce. Rena had never eaten anything where the sauce was used as decoration as well as flavour. On top of that, she'd already eaten an entree of muscles (which was also new to her), and to her side was a fancy glass of wine, which Rena found to be very sharp, but she didn't know how else to describe it. People who drink wines regularly probably had hundreds of words for it, so Rena had no idea if this was what all wine tasted like. Wine was something her mother had never given her (partly because she couldn't afford it), and Philia told her that she should drink only a little and slowly, to appreciate it. Rena thought it might take some time for that to happen, but she wasn't going to reject it. If Philia said that food like this was good, then who was she to argue?

Philia claimed that there would be a surprise desert as well, but Rena failed to see how she could possibly have room for it. So far, she felt like she'd eaten more today than she had the past week. If this was what rich folk ate everyday, it was no wonder everyone wanted to be rich.

"Philia, we've done everything here," Rena said between mouthfuls. "We're going to find the Sorcery Globe again. And there's something else I need to ask you. So will you come with us?"

Philia gave a knowing smile before answering. "Of course. I'm the most knowledgeable person about Dark Sphere that's on your side, so you'll need me. But that's not the real reason is it? You've been waiting to ask me for a long time now, haven't you? I can see it in your face."

"I figure we'd stay here for a bit before going on. You know, I really think we need the rest."

"Not to mention really deserve it," Claude added, speaking with his mouth half-full.

"You're not worried about how the villagers might treat you?" Philia said. "I know that if I had worked as hard to save a village as you both have, I'd expect the full hero treatment. But you know, maybe it might not be a good idea and all. Expectations might not fit, whereas if you leave, well, then your expectations will match up perfectly with reality."

"That's what you worried about?" Rena asked. "I'm sure it will be fine. Anyway, I want to talk with some of the crest magicians here. I figure that maybe I could pick up a thing or two from them."

"As in... tutoring?"

Rena forced the memory of the battle out of her mind. "After that battle, it's clear that my crest magic isn't nearly as good as what this journey will need." _We were very lucky to come out of that alive. And it turned out that a crest magician from the village would have been useful, _in_ the ruin. I need to learn more on using crest magic._ "And that means finding someone to give me a few pointers in using it. And Marze is the best place on the continent for that."

"Well, for someone like you, I suppose practice is the only way. A pitiable situation. Princess Rozaria seemed to have it so much easier."

_Already having every supposed skill at one's command, as Rozaria claimed to, would have advantages. But then again, I'm still breathing, and she isn't._

"Okay, it seems you made things interesting afterall," said a strange woman's voice. Rena turned her head to see behind her the rude girl that they'd run into previously. For the first time, Rena paid proper attention to what she looked like. She was about the same age as Rena, kept her hair in neat blond ringlets to frame a smooth face. She looked like the kind of person who had a bit of money to spend on constant upkeep, but not too much. Her clothes, primarily her wide blue dress trimmed in white, was similar. They were no where near being extravagant, but she certainly wasn't poor either. Without waiting for a response, she sat down at the table in the spare seat, and started buttering herself some bread.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?"

The girl took a bite before talking about other things. "Oh, I'll have a drop of that wine too. So, how'd you get this gig?"

_What's a 'gig'?_

"Why are you here?" Claude said, notably without any pleasantries that the girl didn't deserve.

"Why are you here?" she said back. "You disobeyed the UP3, and I don't see anyone else helping you. Not one of the villagers, and only a small number of other travellers. How'd that happen? Do you have friends in high places? Who told you about Marze?"

"No one told us anything. We just found this place. Now, if you'll excuse us, we were enjoying our meal in quiet."

"I hardly see how that was possible. Everyone's staring at this table." Rena had noted that of course, but she had tried to ignore it. This girl was ignoring the looks much more successfully however.

"Maybe so, but at least they don't sit down uninvited."

The girl ignored the comment, instead stealing another piece of bread and then reaching to pull a piece of meat off Rena's plate. She scoffed them down before continuing. "So, I wanted to ask. Since you apparently have connections, what do you know about that new star that appeared in the sky last night?"

"_What_ connections? And what new star?" _And why can't you realise that we don't want you here?!_

"Huh. I'd have thought you'd notice. The rest of the town knows, but of course, they're all busy with that kidnapping plot. They'll probably get around to it soon."

"Okay, fine, that's nice. Now please leave!" Rena stood up, got behind her chair, ready to pull it out from under her if need be.

"You want to me leave?! Whatever! Fine!" the girl said as if somehow she was the one that was offended. "I... I hope you get a stomach ache from this!" eating even as she gave the curse. "All I'm doing is trying to figure out what's going on, perfectly acceptable, I might add, and I get treated like this. Just remember my name! You regret ever being rude to me!" the girl pushed her chair out, bumping it into Rena, and then she stood up to walk off.

"We don't even know your name. You didn't even introduce yourself before you started ranting."

"What?! Don't tell me what you do and don't know! You know what?! Fine! I'm Puffy, and I hope we never see each other again!"

***

_How could I lose?_

_I saw their every moment. I heard every word they said. I knew their thoughts. Their goals and their hopes were clear to me. I was stronger and faster. But even with every advantage, I still lost?_

_Did I want them to win? Was that part of me the stronger part? It must have been. There is no other explanation. I could not have lost any way but that._

_You want me to wait, to learn their aims? Why does it matter? Why can't I win now?! What's so important?! Dark Sphere, answer me!_

_No. _I_ want to wait. Of course. That's the only thing that makes sense. It does matter. If it did not, then I wouldn't be waiting. Yes, that is it. It's obvious to me now._

_I'll follow, and if need, I'll take my chance again later. But I can't wait too long. The Ten Wise Men and their demon hordes will overrun this land before long. But I'll follow for now._

_After that witch took Clauzer away from me, I employed the best revenge. So, if I want to, I can rely on you again?_

_Dark Sphere!_

_You promised me!_

Rozaria's eyes shot open and she drew a deep sudden breath. Inside, she could feel a light, burning away the shame of defeat. Unable to contain it all, the floating ancient ruin was lit up by an intense white light that was brighter than daylight, as the princess went through a process of renewal that she had not been forced on her for many years. The light filled every part of her, every nerve felt to be on fire, she could see and hear nothing as her every sense was overloaded.

It felt like hours, but she knew it was not more than five seconds before the light inside her faded. Her vision cleared, and she could see again. There was nothing to see, however. She was still in the same the room where she had been slain, but without power the ruin was pitch black. It made no difference whether her eyes were open or closed. It was also completely silent, but Rozaria knew she was alive. The feel of the cool metallic floor and dry air was proof that she was still part of the world.

A new woman, fully healed from her fatal injuries, stood up. There was not even a drop of blood left on her silk dress. She was perfect once again. The process was painful, but the pain of rebirth would quickly subside. The pain of defeat would not.

* * *

**Dictionary: Book of Secret Seals**

A priceless book on crest magic that is kept in Marze (supposedly). It contains ancient knowledge of sealing magic. These include magic that prevents others from using magic, magic that can make people forget certain memories, magic that can create barriers, and others, all related to sealing. The origins of the book are unclear, there are no known authors.

Celine Jules 'borrowed' it, although she for some reason never made it clear to anyone else what she wanted it for. Why she kept it a secret is also unknown.

The book was requested as part of a ransom by bandits who had kidnapped several children of Marze, and event that turned out to be manipulated by Princess Rozaria of Lacuer. What she wanted the book for is also unknown.

* * *

**Author's notes:**

This is the end of the SO2 section. As always, any reviews and constructive criticism would be appreciated.

It's starting to dawn on me just how long this work would be to fully write... It's much longer than I expected.


	26. C3 01 Unwanted

**Chapter 3-1: Unwanted**

**SD 772-10-25**

Albel Nox repeatedly tapped the long metal fingers of his left hand against the hard wooden table he was seated at. The tapping made a sharper and more pleasing sound than those of most people. Albel knew that the incessant noise would irritate Vox, even if it was just a little, but it was a worthy way for his metallic arm to pass the time.

As far as he was aware, Albel was unique in that respect. In times of war such as these, it was not uncommon for men to lose their limbs (although more usually their lives). Even young men like Albel could look forward to spending much of their lives incomplete. But Albel was the only one to have been worthy of having it replaced with a fully functioning metal substitute. For him, it didn't feel incomplete. It was better. Unlike his right arm, which was still fully flesh, his left was cold metal, with each of the fingers sharpened to a point, making it a wonderful weapon. There were disadvantages, he supposed, to having a metal prosthetic arm. He'd had to adjust his fighting style to the fact he had no sense of feeling in it. But that was a minor thing, not worth worrying about.

So now, he was going to tap, tap, and tap away. _If it drives Vox into madness before this useless meeting begins, then it will be worth losing a hundred arms._ They'd dragged him all the way from Kirlsa, where his Black Brigade was stationed, a base to act out in their war against the Aquaria Sacred Dominion. In his absence, Shelby was probably having the time of his life, re-ordering the soldiers as he saw fit, and enjoying the stocks of wine kept in the cellar rather than paying attention to his own failings as a soldier. There was a time to relax, and that maggot Shelby was never going to be good enough to earn it.

In contrast to Albel's laid back style, with his right arm slung over the back of his chair, Duke Vox sat impassively, hand clasped together in front of him with elbows on the table to support his thinly bearded chin. The man was overly neat, not a single hair on his head or chin out of place, and he kept his robes in similar fashion, if one could see it underneath all the pointless medals he paraded on it. Vox glared across the table at Albel, the two out of three heads of Airyglyph's military branches locked in contest to determine who would break first.

A young kitchen maid came with today's meal and stood at Albel's left in order to place it down. When it became clear that Albel was not about to move his arm away for some tasteless meat, she quickly changed sides. Another servant appeared out of the hallway and into the meeting room and placed a similar meal in front of Vox, but again neither of them would pay them any mind, lest they look away first. Both maids made deep curtsies that neither of the men seated acknowledged and quickly moved away to stand at the wall until they were wanted again.

It was not long before the three third head of Airygylph's forces, Woltar and the Airyglyph's young King entered the room, forcing the staring contest to an end. The King took up a position at the head of the table in the largest backed chair, while Woltar sat on the same side as Vox, but closer to the King, demonstrating his supposed superiority over the other two. _Stupid old man, why aren't you dead yet?_ The man was well into his eighties, and only had a few strands of wispy white hair left on the side of his head. But he still kept himself tidy and impressed on those around him that he was still the most important person in the military. There was once a time when Woltar would have been considered one of the greatest soldiers Airyglyph had ever seen, but his body was no longer up to such a task. Of course, he still held claim to lead his Storm Brigade. _If you're too old to lead them on the battle field, then you should stand aside for someone who isn't._

By contrast, the King wasn't much older than Albel himself, just recently reaching his thirties. And like Woltar, he liked to keep his appearance neat, and he had the advantage of not being almost dead. But aside from the age difference, the King and Woltar were really quite similar, especially in their attitude in leading soldiers and the country. Since their recent coup to oust the nobles, things had improved at least. The soldiers actually had something to aim for. Most of them were still useless and weren't going to make it, but at least they could be sent onto the battlefield without total embarrassment.

The king began the meeting without waiting for his own meal to arrive. "I've called you here, because we must reassess our situation with the war against Aquaria. Woltar will explain it to you."

"Aquaria are currently in a lull regarding their any outwardly aggressive activities. Certainly, they are plotting their next move. Our spies in Aquaria that have confirmed that they are working on some new weapon, to supplement their runological forces, but the origin of these weapons is a tightly guarded secret," Woltar said. _If you're going to waste my time with these words, you could at least speak them more quickly._

Vox responded in his consistently pompous voice. "Why does this matter at all? No matter what they do, they will fall before our swords. Ever since this campaign began, we've held the advantage. Let me assure you, your majesty, that our military might shall crush all that they throw at us."

Aquaria's runological forces were currently the only thing they had going for them. Their standard military was weak and pathetic, leaving the cowards to hide behind magic as their only defence. But even that was failing in the face of Airyglyph's superior forces. The heavy armoured Black Brigade alone would be enough with time to overrun Aquaria. Combining them with the flying Dragon Brigade and the heavy cavalry of the Storm Brigades would be overkill. Indeed, Albel wondered why they had not charged in with all the forces they had already. The King and Woltar could be excused, they claimed to say something about unneeded casualties, but Vox wasn't one to be restrained by such things. The way Albel saw it, any soldier that died was too weak to be worth a soldier anyway, so they might as well get rid of the chaff in the process. It would make the remainder stronger.

"Let us not be over hasty," Woltar said. "Pride comes before the fall. We have heard rumours that Aquaria are colluding with Greeton, and that is the source of their recent technological advances."

_Greeton, the so-called technological superpower, is in an alliance with Aquaria?_ The Kingdom of Greeton was vast country on a vast continent of the same name, located to the east of the Gaitt continent. There were passages of dubious safety that one could make from Aquaria to Greeton, but the border was officially tightly shut, and had been so for the past three hundred years. Stories of Greeton suddenly rescinding their isolationist policy were as likely as a Albel suddenly spouting wings and flying off the castle walls.

But the only thing that Albel said was "Bah, there are a thousand such rumours. Why should this one be any different?"

Instead of answering, the King simply said. "Albel, I've decided to send you to Greeton."

It took Albel a few moments to comprehend what had just been said. "What?!"

"We'll need someone capable of taking care of themselves for this task. You'll be travelling in any capacity you feel would be most suitable, the choice is yours. You can travel in secret, or openly as an ambassador if you wish."

Albel, an _ambassador?_ Albel knew what ambassadors were. They wasted their time pleading with likeminded people when all they were really good for was crawling in the dirt.

However, the thing that made no sense was that the King already knew this. Woltar knew, _everyone_ knew. Albel had no time for such trivialities, he was a warlord, and that meant his place was on the battlefield. In his youth he had taken such trivial tasks, so he supposed that meant he had some experience. But looking back, they had all been a waste of time. Convincing others of your view was so much easier when you had a sword in their face.

"I agree with Woltar. We do need to investigate this," Vox stated, suddenly changing his mind. Vox was the King's uncle, but that was unlikely to be his reason for suddenly agreeing.

Albel slammed his metal hand against the table. "You actually agree with this?!" Of all people, Vox was the strongest advocate of the war. He had repeated unceasingly that Airyglyph would be the victor, and that there was not the slightest hope for an Aquarian victory.

"If Aquaria were to suddenly gain a technological advantage, it would severely hamper the war effort," was all Vox said. From his viewpoint, the decision was already made.

"And what happened to your confidence?!"

"I'm just considering all the possibilities," was all Vox said. But it was rather clear that he meant to direct the war effort without Albel's presence. And take all the credit when it was over. "If you are worried about the war effort, you may rest at ease. I'm sure that there are many capable men that will take up any slack that arises from your temporary absence."

"Now, I think it would be unfitting to send you alone. After all, you are the captain of the Black Brigade. It would not be right the captain of the Black Brigade without at least some sort of servants or soldiers to captain, would it?" the King said calmly.

Technically, it would be illegal, according to the law of the land. As the head of one of Airyglyph's three major military branches, Albel was technically prohibited from undertaking any sort of mission in foreign lands alone. Something to do with the definition of commanding and safety, Albel didn't care what self-important nobles though was worthy of making a law. The same rule applied to Woltar, Vox and especially the King himself, none of whom ever objected to it. Of course, when Albel wanted to do something without any help (which was every time), he didn't bother asking about the legality of it.

"Just a moment ago, you were carrying on about this mission being a secret, and now you want to drag some worthless dregs about it?"

"The degree of secrecy is your decision," Vox said, now talking as though he had been in on the plan from the beginning. It was a natural talent of his. "And besides, you could be attacked. It would be poor luck indeed if you were attacked and you had no one to defend your person," Vox said. He kept his mouth straight, but Albel knew he was hiding a smirk.

"You needn't worry about anyone think you a coward for missing a little bit of the war. I assure you that no one would say such a thing," said Woltar.

"I don't care what they think!"

"Good, then I see no reason for you to object. You and your group are to make a small incursion into the border land between Aquaria and Greeton, to determine if they are in collusion. A simple task that should not take very long, I would think."

"I said I don't need help."

"Presentations matter, you should know that, Albel," the King added.

_The only thing that matters when I present myself is that everyone knows to stand aside._

"I have pride enough in the things that matter. A party of soldiers would be useless and only slow me down." Of course, that's was probably Vox's intention anyway. _Bastard._

"Albel, we will insist you take at least one with you, if you will not accept a party."

_You're so insistent that I not go alone that you'll force me to take even just one soldier? Hmph._ Albel quickly thought over the troops under him that he could remember, but few of them stood out in ways that they would appreciate hearing from him. More than a small number of the higher ranked ones were most notable for being private supporters of Vox, worms with silver tongues. They held their positions due to Shelby, who despite being the 2nd in command for the Black Brigade, was really nothing more than a lump of armour without wit or a dragon he so desired. Shelby himself would naturally be in charge of the Black Brigade while Albel was away. With him in command, there probably would be a few more suck-ups with rank to boast when he returned.

Of course, there were a few soldiers with the right attitude, but the important factor was the 'few', and it would be a waste to take any of them away. Especially when they would be sorely needed to provide a proper example for the rank and file against the decadence that Shelby would undoubtedly display.

There was the option of taking the most irritating of those soldiers with him, to prevent them from possibly advancing rank under Vox while he was away. But there was a very high probability of several accidents along the way that only Albel would survive. That didn't seem too bad, provided the accidents happened early enough. It was also stupid from the viewpoint of efficiency. If he was going to have an army of idiots, it would be far better for them to die in battle, than on a meaningless trip. They could at least distract the enemy that way.

"I'll still take no one," Albel finally decided. He crossed his arms to signal an end to any further considerations, but no one got the message.

"Now Albel, you're certainly unmatched in Airyglyph with a blade, but being a captain is more than that. It has been noted that you don't seem to... _interact_ well with the staff, soldier or otherwise. Maybe some time in such company would help you interact better." Woltar said.

_Oh, so that's what the old man is up to. They want me to play nice, like all the other good little soldiers._

"A soldier doesn't need to be pleasant company; he just needs a sharp sword and the wit to use it."

"If only all battles could be won that way. Still, you _will_ take someone," the King said firmly. "I think it will be appreciated it in time. And anyway, as we stated before, it will not be seen as right for a military captain to go alone. Secret or not, people will learn of it one day. The responsibility of power demands that you look the part and obey the law. And since you refuse a company of even a single soldier, you will take a servant."

Vox now started having trouble controlling his face. Albel could see the laughs just wanting to leap out. And if they did, Albel would grab them and forcefully shove them right back down his throat.

"You would have me take a servant? Do you think me incapable of looking after myself?! From where would you get such a ridiculous idea?!"

"Perhaps a soldier that you can't leave to fend for themselves would suit this mission better," Woltar said, unfazed in the slightest by Albel's objections.

A servant would probably have a much better chance of surviving than a soldier actually. Albel wouldn't be able to abandon them, or send them charging into a dangerous situation, and claim afterwards it was their own fault if they got lost or killed. _They probably planned this from the beginning._

"And I suppose you've already picked one out with bags packed?"

"No actually. I don't think anyone would dare presume to pack bags ahead of you. So I'm afraid you've gone ahead of us on that one."

"Well, that's a surprise. I'm a little disappointed."

"If you say, then we'd best live up to your expectations and choose one now. Do you have any particular requests?"

"Of course not," Albel replied instantly. But after he said those words, he realised what he had just said. _Did they just get me to implicitly agree to this stupidity?_ Woltar really was the worst. Vox might be a schemer, but he was easy to both read and contest. With Woltar, you never knew what he wanted until you'd already done it.

"I told you, I care not for them. If they can't fight, then they can't do anything."

"In that case, it doesn't really matter then does it? So we'll just pick one at random."

"Random? Well, I like to see the surprise on their face when they find out how lucky they are."

"If you so desire, we can concede that request," Woltar said.

_What is that supposed to mean?_

"You, Albel's waitress. Your name?" Woltar asked, very calmly. Not that it would do any good, considering what was about to happen.

The room suddenly became very quiet, as everyone now focused on the serving girl behind him. Normally, they were invisible except when called upon to bring food and remove the empty plates. And even then, no one paid much attention to them. Of course, some servants of various kinds would travel with groups of nobles or ambassadors to other countries, but it was unlikely that any had ever been singled out for such a task in this way.

The young girl didn't say anything. She was quite young, not past her mid-teens, which meant she was in no position to even know how to refuse. _This is not going to work out at all._ That bastard Vox had now broken into a full smile at Albel's new predicament.

"Now, don't be shy," Woltar said, in his gentle voice.

"M-Mayu," she finally stammered. Albel doubted that they would get much more out of her today.

"The Kingdom is requesting your aide in this mission to Greeton."

'_Requesting?'_ Anything from Woltar to anyone not the King was an order, no matter how it was worded. Even Albel and Vox couldn't go against him easily.

The girl didn't say anything. Not that it mattered, her assistance, pointless as it may be, was assured.

"Well, since that's settled…" the King began, but he was interrupted as Albel suddenly rose from his chair. _If I have to put up with this weight, then she better be able to pull herself._

"You. Put your hand on the table," he ordered.

The girl looked up at him, but she still wasn't moving any more than a statue.

"I said, put your hand on the table!" Albel demanded. When it became clear that she was not going to do any such thing, Albel grabbed her hand and forced it flat out.

"Now, if you do exactly as I say, nothing _unpleasant_ will happen. Keep your hand there, and don't move."

Albel raised is claw hand very deliberately above her hand, making sure that she got a good view of every sharp finger. They made a lovely sound as the metal tapped against each other. Striking with his claw very suddenly, and then suddenly stopping just above where her hand would have been. But the silly girl broke and pulled her hand away. Of course, no fibre.

There way a momentary cry of pain from her as clutched her injured hand with the other, and there was a small trickle of blood from underneath. The other serving girls quickly surrounded her and pulling her out of the room. It had only been a scratch, and it would have been nothing if she had only done what she was told.

"I thought I told you to keep your hand were it was. Nothing would have happened if you had listened to what I told you. You have no one to blame but yourself," Albel said before she was gone completely. Albel then turned back to address the king. "She's useless."

"Just because she can't wield a blade, doesn't mean she's useless," the King replied. "She doesn't have to fight, only take care of your logistics. You can cooperate with the law this time."

_Laws always get in the way._

***

King Airyglyph XIII walked back towards the throne room with Woltar at his side. He didn't take his steps too quickly, so that the aged Woltar could keep up. If he suggested going faster, Woltar would insist that they were already walking at the perfect speed. When you were the King, a lot of things you did were automatically right.

But for the other things...

"The meeting went as well as could be hoped, considering the situation," he said, more to himself than to Woltar. Of course, Albel was rather upset from the meeting, and justifiably so. The King hadn't ordered him on such a mission for many years, and never since he had obtained his current position as head of Airyglyph's heavy armour Black Brigade. And that poor girl might not fair too well. But Albel, for all his faults, wouldn't actually attack someone as non-threatening as her. Well, not any more than what had already happened, at least. The King didn't know anything about her, but since she was the unlucky one to be attending Albel today, well, life wasn't always fair. _I'll see to it that they give her a promotion in the kitchens when they return._ The experience might even prove useful for her later.

Woltar seemed able to read the worry in the King's mind. "My liege, for the future of your kingdom, you must be able to depend on those under you. But with things as they are now, that isn't possible."

"I sometimes wonder, is this the right thing to do? I do not like the idea of sending one of our leaders away during this time of war. Albel is lacking in many areas, but combat expertise is not one of them, and that is something we sorely do need at this time. This plan of yours..."

"It is necessary for the future of your kingdom. What we started must go all the way through. We have rid ourselves those nobles that were excessively decadent, and reorganised the army, and we are a hundred times the stronger for it. We can't stop now. We must remove ourselves of all the elements that would sabotage our strength, no matter who they might be. Fortunately, there is more than one way to do that. The future of Airyglyph depends on it. And of course, even if Greeton isn't helping the Aquarians as is probably the case, he might still bring something back that could help us."

Albel might disparage any method of fighting that was not blade to blade, but even he wouldn't neglect anything that might give Airyglyph another advantage in battle. If he returned with some knowledge of Greeton's technological wonders, or even information on just what was happening between them and Aquaria, then that would be value enough. _Still, it sounds like I'm trying to convince myself. Even though I know that doing nothing is worst of all, I still can't shake the idea that I'm being reckless._ The Black Brigade would be fine without Albel for a short while, technically speaking, but it was the long term that the King was worried about, which was part of the reason they had sent him away from it.

_So now we'll wait and see._

* * *

**Dictionary: Kingdom of Airyglyph**

A militaristic country located on the south-western end of the Gaitt continent of Elicoor. Due to the cold and mountainous climate, Airyglyph has little farmland and is forced to trade with other countries for food. The tall mountains of Airyglyph are mined for metals as the main source of income.

Recently, Airyglyph has entered a war with their neighbour, Aquaria, over control of the lands that border between them. The Kirlsa Hills (as known in Airyglyph) are a large plain which would be valuable crop land for Airyglyph, while Aquaria are interested in the lands as a mining region.


	27. C3 02 Eclipsed Moonshadow

**Chapter 3-2: Eclipsed Moonshadow**

**SD 776-10-14**

Careful to remain as still as he could under a dense bush, a young man named Bradol eagerly looked at the pair of travellers heading past him. In the lead, a man walking, and behind, two lums as beasts of burden, carrying a lady and unknown goods. They looked like they were quite well off, and the boss would probably be very interested to know about that. As they came closer, travelling across the narrow pass between two sets of mountains, it was possible for Bradol to listen in. However they didn't say much.

"Uh…" the young woman who was riding the lum said, in an accent that suggested she was from the south, in Airyglyph. "What is the time?"

The man didn't reply or even turn his head to acknowledge the question. He just kept walking forward. The woman seemed shy, and it took her about a minute before she asked again.

"Uh, it's just, aren't you tired? How come you never ride? You've been walking for five days."

"Do I look like I lead the Storm Brigade to you?!" the man finally replied. "And aren't you tired of that useless blather you call conversation? It's bad enough that I'm forced to come all the way out here, and even more so that I have to bring a dead weight. The least you could do is keep your useless mouth silent."

After that they were silent, and soon enough they disappeared behind a grassless hill. Waiting till the count of thirty before moving in case they had better ears than most, Bradol sneaked out and quickly made his way back to camp.

***

Naro Vitril was carefully carving a little wooden figure with his knife in front of the campfire. It was too early to know just what it would become, but Naro felt it probably would become an adequate replacement for the old one that had been stolen by some Medonix brat. Slowly and carefully, piece by piece, it would become his new luck charm.

He stopped his woodwork at the sound of Bradol scappling down to his hiding location. Bradol Cee was not the best at keeping quiet when he should, but he was good enough for someone who had not been in the band for very long, and Naro thought he would become a valuable member of the infamous Moonshadow clan in time. For now, Brandol practiced his scouting from a distance, and that was enough to satisfy Naro.

"Boss!" he yelled a little too excitedly. "I saw two south of here, two hills away. A man and a woman, moving eastwards towards Greeton."

"What did you think of it?"

"No weapons at hand, but I think they have at least a couple of swords packed. They hide under long cloaks, even in this warm weather. They seem to be travelling quite light, but the lums were quite pretty and strong. I reckon they must be trying to buy stuff from Greeton to sell."

Avoiding tariffs perhaps? Or maybe fleeing the war zone between Aquaria and Airyglyph? Either way, travel into Greeton was supposed to be strictly monitored, and the border guards were meticulous in preventing all but the most influential of people from crossing. And even those that passed only did so after paying the exorbitant crossing fees. Greeton guarded its secrets tightly, so it was no mystery that there would be many outsiders intent on entering without permission. Naro and his gang had done it themselves countless times.

By Bradol's description, these travellers seemed to think that they could make something to gain by coming to Greeton. Whether it was a new life away from the war, or simply a profit selling the rare trinkets of Greeton in Aquaria or Airyglyph, it was something they were willing to risk coming out all this way for. And in there greed laid Naro's own plans for profit.

"Brad, gather the boys round." Bradol scampered off to collect the rest of the gang while Naro considered the situation. These two travellers were taking a high risk passing here, and they were obviously hoping to avoid the attention of people such as Naro as well as the border guards. But doing so left them vulnerable to attack.

Naro began outlining a plan in his head. These people would probably have a reasonable sum at hand, and their beasts could be sold as well. A surprise ambush and a quick forced surrender would be the best option, as was usual for cases like this one. It would have to be assumed that they could both fight, but surrounded, outmanned and deprived of access to their weapons, they would have to stupid to resist. But Naro always remembered that he had encountered more than his share of stupid people in his time.

It wasn't too long before Bradol returned with the rest of the Moonshadow Clan. One by one, they sat down to listen to Naro's plan.

"My brothers, young Brad has spied two fat gooses south of here. I say that we take advantage and maybe we'll buy a decent dinner for once." Maybe the company of a pretty face too.

"It's 'geese', boss," said Cack, a wiry man with thinning hair, far too early for his age.

"Huh?"

"The plural of 'goose' is 'geese'."

"Does that really matter Cack?" said the burly Foltram in an irritated voice. Foltram was a large bloke and Cack easily got on his nerves without trying.

"I'm just saying. But fine, whatever," Cack said, deciding to concede his defence of the term.

"Folt will approach from behind. Sem, you take Cack and circle 'round from the south. Me and Brad will appear in front and them, that's your signal. We make this quick and clean, no blood."

"Not like last time, eh?" Sem said. Before he realised it, Naro was subconsciously running his fingers over a new scar on his left cheek. He had quite a few such scars, they all did. Reminders of when they had been stupid while convincing their 'patrons' to hand over their money without fuss. There was also one on his arm when he had been stupid with his own knife while carving, but he wasn't about to tell the others the truth behind that one.

"No, not like last time. Get your arms and let's go, we need to hit them while they're still close."

***

Just like Bradol had said, there were two of them. The thin man of average height was walking in front, pulling his lum, while the woman was riding hers, but she clearly wasn't comfortable. This was the first time Naro had seen them, and both of them were quite young, the woman more so, she still must be under twenty, while the man was something like half a decade older. Both travellers were fully cloaked, hiding everything except their faces.

Their beast looked like they were good quality animals, and to ride one would indicate someone well off. Such people of wealth would normally learn how to ride quite young, so Naro found it odd that the man didn't want to ride while he could. On their return journey, the lady would probably be walking as the lums carried the goods, but it seemed a long and odd journey to make for a man that didn't like riding. Still, that didn't matter. The condition of their lums at least confirmed that they were well off. They could afford the misfortune they were about to suffer, whoever they might be.

The pair was walking over the barren ground towards the ambush site. The most natural way forward was to pass along a long dried riverbed that headed east. In parts, the sides became quite steep, and it was in one of these that the strangers would find Naro. Too difficult to quickly climb to the sides for a human, and impossible for a lum, it was the best place.

_Careful…_

Just before Naro was to step out and announce his presence, the male halted, forcing the woman to do likewise. _Has he spotted one of us?_ The pair of them had just passed Foltram's hiding position, but Foltram was always still as a rock when it came to hiding. There was no way they would have sensed the large man. The male traveller was looking about the riverbed with his brown eyes, but his face didn't show any real concern. Only boredom. _It's about to get a lot more exciting for you, my friend._

It wasn't long before they started moving again, and as soon as they entered the narrowest and steepest part of the river bed, Naro ran quickly to the centre of the path ahead.

"Halt!" At the same time, his boys pushed two felled trees onto the path, one on each side. This would trap the animals at least, so even if they tried to run away, they would have to abandon everything.

Fortunately for them, the travellers did so listen to his command to stop. The woman riding the lum instantly became extremely agitated, but neither of them said a word. The man leading dropped his grip of the rein of his animal, but didn't do anything else. Unlike his companion, he seemed much more composed.

"M, my lord… we…" the woman on the lum began to say, but she was quickly interrupted by her

"You stay quiet!"

Now that Naro was in the open, that was the cue for Sem and Foltram to likewise show themselves. Sem was resting above on one of the logs by the riverside, his sword in hand. Foltram came up behind, his imposing presence and large club always lent a valuable atmosphere of entrapment to the situation like this. Cack and Bradol were still hidden in the trees surrounding but rustled the leaves, generating uncertainty in just how many there were, but they remained close enough to get in easily once it was safe to collect the goods.

So, this man they had held up was a lord? Or at least one compared to her, which made her what? Could be anything between a maidservant all the way up to his wife. But it didn't really matter. Her reactions demonstrated she was no threat.

"I say, I'm afraid I'll be taking those nice animals, and whatever money you have too." Naro pointed his sword directly at the man. It wasn't a particularly good sword, but it did the job, and steel was always a winner over flesh. And he would have a new sword after today anyway if Bradol was right.

"Is that right?" the man leading said, keeping his eyes down downwards to the ground, which made it seem like he was afraid of facing up to the situation. It appeared he was going to try to bluff his way though this trap, but the few travellers that attempted such a tactic never kept it up for very long once the hopelessness of the situation was made clear to them.

"Now, now, don't be stupid." Naro pointed his sword to a tree for a moment, signalling Cack to fire a warning shot at the traveller's feet. The man glanced upwards towards Cack's direction for a moment before returning his gaze to Naro's feet. "See, you're well outmatched. Have your ladyfriend dismount, and you two can start walking back the way you came. You'll make it back to the gate by sundown if you start now." Of course, they would have some long explaining to the guards there just what they were doing across the border, but that wasn't Naro's problem.

The woman still hadn't spoken, but it looked as if she was about to comply when the man suddenly yelled at her, pointing his right hand at her in command "You stay right there!" Caught between conflicting orders, she apparently decided to listen to her friend. Naro didn't care much, since this man would soon be listening to him before long.

"I just left there and I have no intention of going back so soon."

"Well, that's your loss." Naro walked until he was two sword lengths away. Even if the man had a hidden dagger of some sort, he was still to far away to prevent Naro getting the first strike and he couldn't have a bigger weapon hidden under that cloak, judging from the way it hung in the light wind. Sem and Foltram were also closing in, Foltram ready to left the woman off her mount by force if needed.

"Do I have to ask again?" It didn't normally take this long, but some people were too stubborn and stupid for their own good. "Maybe you deserve a little mark on your face, to remind you of your stupidity. You think your girlfriend would like that?"

"Try using that rusty sword against me, and there'll be more than just a mark."

"It's still sharp enough to cut your arm off."

The man suddenly stared at Naro, grinning madly, like he was laughing at some private joke. Naro didn't know quite what to make of it, but the traveller soon controlled himself. _But those sure are some creepy eyes._ "Try it then," he said.

_Well, that's a new one._ Still, a scratch wouldn't do any permanent damage, and it would teach this fellow a valuable lesson for the future. Naro walked forward until he was just close enough to touch with his blade this stranger's smooth face.

"Don't say I didn't warn…"

Naro's final warning was cut short as the man grabbed the blade of his sword with his left hand and twisted it. There was the sound of metal on metal, but before Naro could let out a cry in astonishment, he suddenly found himself on the ground, and his face felt like it was on fire, it burned so much.

Naro crawled onto his hands and knees and wiped his face. Gradually, his sight and hearing returned to him, and the first thing he saw was his own hand covered in blood. _My blood?_

There was a scream behind him that sounded like Cack. Naro quickly turned to witness a nightmare, as the man they had stopped, now looking more like a monster, extracted his arm from Cack's stomach with blood flaying from the horrible metal arm, and Cack crumpled to the ground in front of him. Sem instantly swung his blade at him, but the stranger evaded effortlessly while at the same time kicking Sem in the side.

Naro forced himself to stand and ignore the pain he was in. Where was Foltram? Bradol was circling Sem and the man, trying to angle a clear shot with his bow, but the man was clearly moving around Sem to avoid this. _What are Bradol and Cack doing down here?_ There was no time to think. The man with the metal arm lashed out at Sem again, and Sem could only desperately block his arm with his sword, but he still lost his balance.

Bradol, unable to get a clear opening on the man, forced one by suddenly re-aiming his weapon at the lady on the lum, and called to the man. "S-Stop! O-or else!" Seeing his chance, Sem took advantage of the distraction to run around to behind the woman, and get his guard back up.

"Listen to yourself!" the man yelled, uncaring that his lady could be shot at any moment. "You can't even hold the aim steady! Just try it, go on."

"I-I mean it!"

"Show me then, you worm."

_I've got to do something._

Finally steady back on his feet, Naro charged towards the strange man, but halfway there, Bradol finally lost his nerve and let lose his arrow at the woman. Amazingly, the man reached out with his metal hand and snatched to arrow out of mid-flight, and then in the same action spun and used his new weapon to quickly stab the heart of Sem who had just started attacking him again. Sem collapsed instantly with a scream.

Bradol was frantically trying to nock another arrow, and Naro was there. "Brad, run! I'll hold him!"

"But…!" Bradol's words were cut short when the evil man easily blocked the Naro's punch, and then he grabbed him wrist tightly with that metal hand. The sharp points of his fingers dung into Naro's flesh, causing blood to trickle out.

"I said you run!" Bradol would have no chance by himself.

Bradol hesitated for a moment, before making a mad dash up the hill, a trail of dead leaves falling behind in his wake. Leaving Naro and this inhuman alone.

So… Sem and Cacker were dead. Foltram was nowhere to be seen, he must be dead too. At least Bradol got away, but…

"So maggot, what made you think you should attack when I clearly gave you ample opportunity to change your mind?"

"Y, you…"

"I'm impressed that you've made one sensible order today. I guess you're in charge of this debacle, but a worm like you won't have to worry about that on your head for much longer." The man ran his metal glove slowly over Naro's chest… but they were far to thin to contain fingers. Was that his real arm, that metal monstrosity?

"Wait!" screamed the girl from atop the lum.

_This is it!_ Taking the chance that the man might be distracted, Naro twisted his body to try and free himself, hoping the man would let go with his mind on his friend. And he did. But before Naro could do anything, there was a sharp pain he his chest, and he was unable to stop himself falling to the ground.

Naro stared upwards at the sky, and the man slowly walked into his field of view, an expression of contempt on his face. Naro tried to reach out to him, but his strength failed him. The man, monster, grew bored, and walked away, leaving Naro with nothing.

***

_This is yet another reason to hate these missions._ When you travelled in small groups, every idiot thought they had a free lunch from you. It didn't take much to show them the error of their ways, but Albel Nox didn't see why he had to be one the dealing with it. It was over quick enough, and now they could continue on their way. Albel didn't know how many more interruptions they were going to have, but it was already too many.

He went back to pick up the rein of his lum, when he saw Mayu still shaking.

"I thought I told you to keep quiet! I hoped your tiny brain would remember what happened the last time you didn't do exactly as I told you."

Mayu instinctively caressed her right hand, which was still in bandages. Her hand would have healed long ago, but for some reason the silly girl hadn't taken the bandages off yet.

"Give me that!" Albel grabbed Mayu's scarf off of her head and used it to wipe away the blood from his arm. Mayu made some sort of wordless objection, but Albel wasn't really paying attention to it. There was already a bit of blood on it from the fight anyway; a little more wasn't going to make a difference. "How disgusting," Albel said to himself. He didn't need the blood of nobody worms ruining his arm.

When he was done, he threw the rag back to his maidservant. "We're leaving! This place is beginning to stink." Leading their small group out, they left the minor battleground to continue on into Greeton.

* * *

**Dictonary: Lum**

The lum is a heavily build equine mammal, found through Elicoor II. While they are used by many types of people, perhaps the most famous is amongst the Strom Brigade of Airyglyph. Lums are very strong and can run quite quickly, but are not the cleverest of animals. While domesticated lums are a common sight, wild lum are nearly extinct due to over-hunting for their horns, which were considered a ingredient in powerful aphrodisiac for some.

* * *

**Author's note:**

I wanted this chapter to be told in an interesting way, from the point of view of the opponents. Please let me know what you thought of it.

Next time, the focus will go to where you might have expected the SO3 part to start, on Hyda IV. But it's a new beginning, and not quite the same as the game, as usual...


	28. C2 03 Retaining Innocence

**Chapter 3-3: Retaining Innocence**

**SD 772-12-14**

Alone, a single swordsman stood in torrential rain in the Eternal Mystic Kingdom of Valhalla, realm of the Gods. The wide grass plain that was his battlefield was the strewn with the bodies of his fallen foes. And there would yet be more, for although he had fell more than twenty deadly enemies this day, a dozen more had just arrived to take their place. They were a combination of powerful knights in gleaming steel armour and their horrifying pets, beasts that appeared as giant beetles with pincers that could pierce sheets of metal like paper.

But the swordsman had no fear. The first knight ran to him, sword raised in order to split the swordsman in two, but the swordsman easily sidestepped the blow and without hesitation, was able to pierce his blade between the joints of the knight's clunky armour. Even as the knight fell, another approached from behind, but the swordsman easily avoided wide slash of the knight's sword by crouching and turning, using the momentum to make a sweeping kick to knock the knight onto his back.

Standing over the foe, the swordsman stuck his enchanted blade into the body of his foe, and watched as the magic of his blade caused his foe to revert to it's true form, that of a harmless spirit, free of the curse that had corrupted it. The swordsman turned to face the next opponent, when something slapped him in on the back of the head. Surprised by this attack, the swordsman twisted with sword outstretched to vanquish his new foe in one mighty blow.

He stopped this sword just in time, for the person behind him was not an enemy, but a young woman with an extremely cross expression on her face.

"Simulation off! Fayt, just what the hell are you doing here?!"

His sword was gone, the foes were gone, the field of battle was gone, the rain was gone and the swordsman was gone. Everything was gone, bar the blue walls of the holographic combat simulation room containing an angry woman and the object of her anger.

"Sophia! I... what time is it?"

"Gee, I wonder! Have you been playing games here this entire time?!"

"I guess so," Fayt said sheepishly. "I was doing really well, and so I guess I kinda... lost track of time..."

"We're supposed to be on a holiday! Why would you waste time playing games when you can do that at home on Earth? I was waiting on the beach for an hour!"

"Calm down Sophia. Look I'll make it up to you."

Sophia quickly turned her back to Fayt and crossed her arms. "Un huh, and how do you intend to do that?"

"Well, I'll think of something. Look, how about we look around the hotel a bit?" Fayt ran around to speak to Sophia's face. "I mean, we haven't had much of a chance to do that yet, have we? I'm sure we'd find something that I can do to make it up to you while we're here."

"So now you want to hang out with me? Hmmm... I don't think I should really forgive you that easily." Sophia turned herself away again.

"I'm serious. Look, stay mad at me if you want, but at least come with me. I can't make it up to you if you don't come with me. Please."

"Now you sound like you're trying to suck up."

"I am trying to suck up."

Sophia giggled a little, before going back to her mad self. A little progress at least. She was going to make him work for it. _Which I deserved, I suppose._

"Alright, how about this? I'm going back to my room for, I don't know, let's say an hour. You can come by then. If you've thought of something good, I might forgive you."

***

_Now, just what am I going to be able to do that will work?_

Fayt walked throughout the massive shopping centre of The Grantier Hotel resort where they were staying for their holiday. The Grantier was certainly an impressive place. Not only was it situated on a white sand beach over-looking a crystal clear bay, but the indoors contained many different shops and services for it's thousands of guests. All this was contained in a grand building fifty stories high that showed off the contrast of straight lines and arched ceilings that made up its architecture.

_A book? Nah, it'd have to be something more impressive than a simple book._ Moving on, Fayt took at a look at the screen floating above the central court, displaying updates of the latest events on a translucent green holographic display. There were several events coming up in the next few days, from old-fashioned surfing competitions to the latest battle simulator tournaments. Fayt wouldn't mind taking a look at one of those, but since the battle simulator was the reason he was looking at these in the first place, that probably wasn't a good choice.

"Still, there's got to be something on worth seeing," Fayt muttered to himself.

"Why do you try going to the circus?" said a girl's voice behind him. Fayt turned to face the speaker and found a young teenage girl with dark skin and pale pink hair looking up at him. She was carrying a large bag on her left shoulder. However, what Fayt noticed the most was that she had some very unusual clothes. Three belts with large buckles around her waist seemed to hold onto her back a pair of long thick pink ribbons that were joined to great metal bangles at her wrists. As the ribbon fell from her waist to the floor before linking to the bangles, it seemed like the kind of thing that would be very easy to trip yourself up over. From there, the ribbons dropped to the floor again, due to two large spherical weights at their ends.

"The circus?" Fayt looked back up to the holographic board, and quickly found the entry that she was referring to. "The Rosetti Troupe?"

"Yeah, you should see it, they're really good!" the girl said enthusiastically. "Tomorrow is their first time they're holding a show here. They'll be doing their show in the Grand Iris Hall, so there's plenty of room."

Fayt was about to turn back to face the girl again, but found that she had skipped around in front of Fayt. "You've been to their show before elsewhere?"

"What? No! I'm a performer in the show, silly!"

_Oh, of course. That would explain the weird clothes._ While there certainly places around where this girl's clothes wouldn't be out of place, Hyda IV wasn't one of them.

"We're a completely natural troupe, no artificial growth enhancers or cybernetics! No symbology assistance either!" The girl said proudly, standing tall, though she was still nowhere near Fayt or even Sophia's height. "When you see us on stage, you're seeing the real thing!"

"Oh, so what do you normally do in this show?"

"That's the best part. I'm Peppita Rosetti, and tomorrow is not only the first time the Rosetti Troupe is hold a show on this planet, but the first time anyone in the public will get to see me perform! I have to get as many people as possible to see it! So how about it, Mister..."

"Fayt Leingod."

"Look, I'll give you a good deal. I'll upgrade you to a front row seat for the price of a standard! So?"

"That does sound pretty good, but how are you able to do that?"

"Hehe, it's just because I think you'd do so much better in the front row. It'll make the circus look better if all the good-looking audience members are on camera."

"Oh, you make it hard to refuse you know."

"Do I? I hadn't noticed," Peppita said with a giant grin as she scratched the back of her head in innocence.

"Are you selling them right now?"

"Sure am! Just for you, a seat will be 2000 fol."

_This will do nicely._ "In that case, I'll take two of them."

"I guess that's okay." Peppita reached into the bad she had slung over her shoulder and pulled out a thick wad of tickets and an extremely old-fashioned handheld payment machine. Several stubs at the top of it indicated that Peppita had previously managed only a few sales. She tore of the two tickets at the top of the wad and handed them to Fayt.

"Wouldn't be easier to just wear a watch or something that could accept payments?" Fayt said as he confirmed the signal for the money exchange using his watch onto Peppita's bulky box.

"But then it would interfere with my outfit."

"So then, what about a microchip under the skin?"

"I can't do that, because it could raise claims that my acts aren't fully without machine aid."

"I hardly think a tiny finance chip would raise suspicions."

Peppita leaned forward into Fayt's personal space. "Don't you have any standards?"

"Please, my young lady, you do cause such dishonour by troubling our friend so," interrupted a new voice. From behind Fayt, a young man appeared and moved next to Peppita. "If those who would annoy and trouble us caused such feelings upon us that it would show, then we must better train ourselves to hide these feelings."

"Quantestorie, I'm not annoyed," Peppita said to the newcomer. "I was just explaining how important our reputation is."

"Quantestorie? You're an Alphalian?" Fayt said. He looked pretty much like an Earthling, but his overwrought speech patterns gave it away.

"Yeah, that's right!" Peppita said. "He gives our opening introduction a little more umph! Although his tendency to over-dramatise things can be a little annoying the rest of the time."

"Un huh." Fayt figured that if this guy spoke in that way all the time, it would quickly get more than 'a little' annoying.

"Oh, you do me be much disservice!" Quantestorie said, raising one hand to his forehead and placing another in front of him, as if to hold back the words. "If this world is merely a playground for those that would watch and pull the strings, and a stage the world should be, it should be a stage full of wonder and thrills, such that the full attention of this drama becomes all their concern!"

"Err, sure." Fayt paused as he thought about what he could say to such a person. "Look, thanks for the tickets, I'm sure Sophia will enjoy it a lot, but I really should be getting back to her."

"Oh, a gift for the young lady? Such are the trials that a Knight must go through in order to win the heart of his Princess. Allow me to delay you no further, you must travel henceforth and quickly press upon her the truth of your feelings," Quantestorie said while waving his hands in strange ways. Peppita crossed her arms and rolled her ups up at the act.

_If you were so concerned about not delaying me, you'd not speak in such a crazy manner._

"Sophia is... ah, never mind. I gotta sell some more, I need my first performance to be a packed house" and with that Peppita put away her remaining tickets back into her bag and walked around Fayt to find someone else, and Quantestorie followed, thankfully without saying anything more.

***

_These tickets should probably be enough, and it didn't even take me half an hour to get them._

Fayt pondered what to do now. _I suppose I could go back and surprise Sophia right now, but she might not be in. It's only half an hour, I'm sure I can waste it on my own._

Fayt entered the second-hand book shop. A shop that sold books made of actual paper was a rarity these days. Usually, most people just read of holographic screens that they would have hover in front of them, and only a small percentage of the population preferred to used paper to read and write. But there were certain places, such as when people were on holidays, where using a hologram outdoors was inconvenient. Particularly a place like a beach resort, where the glare from the sand and sea would make reading a hologram irritating on the eyes. So a resort like this was the perfect place to set up such a shop.

Unfortunately, the shop wasn't organised in any method that Fayt could see, and there were many books that were placed together that didn't relly make sense. In one corner, Fayt could see gardening placed with children's books, and another shelf held religion next to computer programming. Perhaps because neither topic really seemed the kind of book people at a resort would be likely to choose.

After examining a few books, Fayt decided that this shop wasn't going to have anything that really catered to his tastes, but as he was about to leave, he noticed a thick blue book in the bargain bin by the shop's entrance. It stood out against the thin and worn novels it was placed with, so Fayt took it out.

_The Symbology of Symbology by Dr. Geeste?! This is Sophia's favourite book! What is a book like this doing here?_

Sophia already had a copy of the book, naturally, but this copy appeared to be a first edition, which would make it extremely rare. The words 'of Symbology' were repeated and shaped into a golden downward pointing triangle on the cover, so that the title was actually an infinite repetition of the phrase that grew smaller in size with each iteration. Fayt turned through the pages slowly. It seemed to have been read before, as expected, but did not have any signs of damage. _I definitely have to buy this._

But the thing that shocked Fayt the most was the message he found written on the inside cover.

***

Fayt knocked firmly on the door to the room that Sophia was in. A voice from behind the imitation wooden door yelled out "Wait, I gotta get changed!"

Around five minutes later, Sophia finally came out of her room. Most of her brown hair was now tied up in a bun and held their by two of those hair-needle things, chopsticks. Fayt wasn't sure what they were called, but chopsticks seemed good enough.

"What were you doing in there?! How long can it possibly take to change into a pair of jeans and a tank-top?"

"Don't worry, my revenge is almost finished," Sophia said, with a touch of mischief. "Assuming of course, that you still deserve it."

"Don't you worry, I got the perfect thing! Actually, two perfect things. They're so perfect that _you'll_ be making it up to _me_ for the rest of your life!"

"Confident, are we?"

"Yes, we are. First, I got us two tickets to see the visiting circus troupe!" Fayt quickly flashed out two tickets to Sophia with a giant grin. "Ta da!"

Sophia shook her head in bewilderment. "It's a great present, but... do you have to make such a silly expression on your face? At least, not in the middle of the hallway."

"What? I'm making it even more exciting, you see? Ta da!" Fayt said again as he went through the motion extending the hand with the tickets towards Sophia, and his other hand back behind him in a flourish.

"Okay, okay, you win. It's exciting."

"Excuse me," said a voice from behind him. Fayt turned to see a tall well-built man in tight fitting black clothing, and long leather gloves. Around his neck were two-and-a-half rings of dark green. Fayt knew this was a sign of a Klasuian, or at least someone who wanted pretend to be a Klausian. Klausians were among the most physically strong humanoid races known in the galaxy, and this man looked the part, with muscles that any human from Earth could be envious of. But as even the regular-looking Klausians would easily overpower the strongest Earthling, this guy would be off the charts.

"Um, yeah, I couldn't help but notice your little display over there."

"See, you were embarrassing yourself," Sophia said.

"Oh , don't worry about that," said the man, holding his hands up to signal the same message. "Anyway, perhaps you two can help me? I'm looking for some people, and I know I'm roughly in the right place, but I'm getting off-track. The point is, would either of you happen to know a Robert or Ryoko Leingod? I think they're staying somewhere around here, and it's really urgent that I see them."

"Uncle Robert and Aunt Ryoko?" Sophia said.

"They're your aunt and uncle?" the tall man, sounding somewhat surprised.

"No, her name's Esteed and she just calls them that, she's not actually related to them. I am though, they're my parents," said Fayt as he turned to face the man full on. "She's here because I invited her."

"Seriously?!" The man stared at Fayt for a moment, and with his hand to his chin, added thoughtfully, "They have a kid? And Clive does too? You'd have thought they'd mention something like that..."

"They're staying in that room over there, but at the moment, I think they're relaxing on the beach. It is supposed to be a holiday you know."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry to bring up work at a time like this, but it is kind of an emergency."

"If it's so urgent, wouldn't it make more sense to call?"

"Well, I'm not really sure how much I can tell you. Confidentiality you know. Even if you are their son. Well anyway, enough about that, can you lead me to them?"

"I suppose so..." Fayt said quietly. "Well, I guess it's alright. But you really shouldn't bother people like this on their holidays without warning."

As he started to lead Sophia and the man to the beach where he thought his parents were, Fayt thought he heard Sophia say something like 'now he thinks it's a holiday', but decided that he couldn't be sure.

***

The beach was somewhat crowed with holiday goers from all over the galaxy, but even so Fayt didn't have any difficulty find his parents among the various humanoid and other more unusual life-forms that were enjoying another day under the sun.

Fayt thought himself and Sophia appropriately dressed for the beach, but this man stood out. You'd have to be crazy to wear a black body suit on a day like today, this man must be sweating like crazy under that.

Fayt's parents were situated under an umbrella they had set up, and lying lazily on a couple of chairs they had flattened out. His mother was slowly making her way through some novel, while his father was using another book to cover his eyes while he took a nap.

"Umm, hi mum."

"Hello dear, hello Sophia," his mother said, without looking up. "You haven't been wasting time playing those games again I hope. There's more to life than playing games. Who is this man you've brought with you?"

"This guy, errr... actually," Fayt said as he turned to the stranger in black. "I forgot to get your name."

"Don't worry about that." The man directed his attention toward Ryoko. "Excuse me, my name is Cliff Fittir. I'm afraid I have some rather urgent business to discuss with you and your husband."

Ryoko still didn't look up from her book. "And what might that be?"

"It concerns a mutual acquaintance of ours, the only survivor from Styx."

Fayt noticed that his mother didn't move, but her attitude toward the man seemed to suddenly change. After a moment, she marked her book and put it down on the sand beside her.

"I see." Fayt's mother paused for a moment. "It really can't wait. Dear." Fayt's mother placed her hand on her husbands shoulder and gave him a gentle shake. "Dear, I'm afraid that our holiday is temporarily off."

Fayt's father reached up and took the book of his face. After taking a moment to see who was there, he said "What's this about? Are you from the Federation?"

"Not exactly. I need to talk to you about some you did work twenty years ago."

"Twenty years ago?! You came out all this way just for that?!" Fayt said with a touch of disbelief.

"That does sound rather unusual," Sophia added.

"Fayt, Sophia, this doesn't concern you. It's just business. Fayt, why don't you take Sophia and see the circus or something. I think they're opening their show today," Fayt's father said.

"Well, actually it's tomorrow, and Fayt's already taking me there." Sophia said.

"Oh, well, that's nice. But unfortunately, this sounds like business that really can't wait. Don't worry, nothing's going to happen to your holiday, just go off and enjoy yourselves," Fayt's father said in a relaxed tone.

Fayt decided that it was obvious that for now his parents weren't going to tell him what they were going to discuss, and this Cliff Fittir wouldn't either. "Come on Sophia. Let's head back to my room. I haven't yet shown you the other present I got for you," Fayt started to run, his sandals kicked up the sand as he did so.

"Hey, wait up!"

***

"This is incredible," Sophia said softly as she flicked through the pages of her new book. "Just where did you get this?"

"Oh, well, I just found it. It was in a second-hand book shop."

"But, this is a first edition of Dr. Geeste's _'The Symbology of Symbology'_! It must have cost a fortune!"

"That's the thing. I don't think the shop even realised what they had, it was in amongst bargain bin full of trashy romance and detective fiction novels."

"So you got it cheap?"

"Well, not too cheap," Fayt said, being sure to accent the 'too'. "Anyway, you haven't got to the best part."

"Oh?"

"Here let me show you." Taking the book back from Sophia, Fayt flicked back the pages to the inside of the front cover. "If you look here, you'll see that Dr. Geeste even signed and wrote a message in the book itself! But you'll never guess what he wrote." Fayt knew he had a massive grin on his face.

"Just let me read it then!"

"But I really want you to guess!"

Sophia closed her eyes and clasped her hands together in front of herself as she thought. "Fine, it says something like..."

Sophia was cut off as the room began to shake violently. Fayt quickly caught Sophia to stop her from falling while at the same time steadying his stance to prevent himself from tumbling. It lasted only a few seconds, and then the room returned to stability.

"What was that? An earthquake? Hyda is a stable planet, there shouldn't be any earthquakes here," Fayt said, trying to come up with an explanation, and he scratched his head.

"I don't know, perhaps we can ask the automated information service."

But before Sophia could carry through her idea, the hotel alarms started to ring out. Fayt found himself plunged into darkness for a second before being returned to a room with red lights and alternately brightened and dimmed, as if they themselves were panicking.

"This is a public safety announcement. We report that the planet Hyda IV is under attack..."

Fayt couldn't help but gape. _The planet is under attack?!_

* * *

**Dictionary: Hyda IV**

A planet located in the Kappa sector, located 1.4 AU from its sun and a surface gravity of 0.9 G. The planet has a climate that is very pleasant for humanoids, a vast array of interesting sights and an almost complete lack of dangerous wildlife. In addition, it had no previous sentient life forms before being discovered. This has made the planet an ideal tourist resort for all sorts of people, and all over the planet one can find hotels and properties devoted to recreational activities, as well as host to hundreds of various conventions.

* * *

**Author Comments:**

I deliberately wrote the first 3 paragraphs in an overwrought style, to try and emphasise the difference between that game world and the real one. Do you think it was effective or not?


	29. C3 04 Flight

**Chapter 3-4: Flight**

**SD 772-12-14**

Sophia hurried after Fayt as he headed towards his parent's room. All around them, hundreds of people with origins from all over the galaxy, were pushing their way through the hotel in an effort to escape. And drowning out their panic was the screeching alarm, which made it difficult for Sophia to concentrate on anything, so she trusted Fayt to guide her by the hand as she worried about where his parents were and if they were still alright.

When they got to the room that Fayt's parents were supposedly staying in, Sophia was shocked for a moment to see that tall man from earlier, Cliff, beating furiously on the door.

"Leingods?! Are you in there?!"

"What's going on?!" Fayt yelled at him. "Why are you still here?!"

"Oh, it's you. I'm here because I have a job to do, that that job is here."

"What sort of job?"

"You're asking me that at a time like this?! Now stand back!" Cliff said as he moved away from the door. Then he slammed his right fist into it, easily splinting the decorated hard wood. He then proceeded to finish the job with a strong kick to push out the door's shattered remains.

"If my parents were really in there, they would've unlocked it by now." Fayt said, as Cliff peered through the door, which was now nothing but bits of wood hanging off the frame.

"Well, I guess they ain't here then."

"Your job?! What could be so important that you'd be here now instead of leaving?! What do the attackers want?!" Sophia asked hurriedly.

"Miss, I haven't a clue. But whatever these guys want, I'm pretty sure it ain't you. Anyway, you guys should stay with me for now, until we get out of here." Cliff said. Without waiting, he grabbed one forearm of Sophia's, and one hand of Fayt's, and started to run down the hall. He was incredibly strong, and Sophia thought that even if she and Fayt resisted with all their strength, he could probably just drag the both of them without having to slowing down. As such, she had no choice but to run along with him.

"What?! Why?!" Sophia exclaimed.

Cliff stopped pulling them and let go. Sophia instinctively rubbed her arm, that guy was really strong. She thought that this guy could probably crush her arm quite easily, but he hadn't caused any injury. "Because we're both looking for Fayt's parents, but they're obviously headed for the evacuation ships already. And I have to wonder why you haven't done the same, but never mind. I have a mind to take you there myself, for protection."

"Protection from what?" Fayt said.

"From guys like that one behind you, I'd say."

Sophia turned as quickly as she could, and found just down the hallway a large grey-skinned humanoid, two metres tall and wielding a large rifle of some sort aimed at them. It was dressed in a long striped robe of some sort, it didn't look very practical for movement, but maybe it was heavily armoured? Sophia didn't recognise the rifle either, and she didn't really what to think about what it could do. The alien's tiny beady eyes where located on the side of his head, but Sophia felt them looking straight at her.

"Who are you?!" the being asked in a scratchy voice.

"We're..." Fayt began, but Cliff interrupted.

"We're just guests of the hotel. Look, we don't have anything you want," he said, holding his hands up to show he wasn't a threat.

"I want names!" it demanded. It re-aimed it's weapon to hurry the process.

"Cliff Fittir." Cliff moved around Sophia, and placed himself in the firing line between herself and Fayt, and this alien. "These two with me are Fayt and Sophia. We're just tourists, you know. There're a lot of us here. No need to bother with us, right?"

The alien seemed to consider for a moment. "Kmph! Never heard of you, and you don't look like my targets. Get out of here, that way." He motioned his rifle to indicate the hallway behind them. "If you want to live, I suggest you just go hide in a corner somewhere. If the two we're after escape on a ship, then we'll hunt it, and we won't care what happens to the rest of the passengers on board." The alien seemed to give a little smile, but it was very hard to tell, as it had a very wide mouth raised at the ends no matter what expression it wore. "Now get going!"

"Not a problem. You guys can do your little invasion; we'll just be going now. Bye then." Cliff gave the alien a little wave, then quickly grabbed Fayt and Sophia again, and started to run off in the direction that the alien indicated before the possibility of the alien thinking he was being mocked could have any effect.

When they had passed well out of sight and there was no-one else around, Cliff stopped and let go for the second time. Without waiting to see what Sophia of Fayt was going to do, he turned on is communicator embedded in his left gauntlet.

"Mirage, can you hear me?" Cliff then nodded, meaning that this 'Mirage' was replying into an earpiece, so that neither Sophia nor anyone else trying to listen in would hear. "Yeah, I got the initial message to them, but have you seen this mess?! What are those Vendeeni doing here anyway? Yes, I know I should get them, but I can't find them now. I did find their kid though. He has a friend too, a little Esteed. What? Yes, they do so have a kid, why would I make that up? I guess Esteed must have also, I'm looking them both in the face right now. Don't ask me why they didn't tell us earlier, I guess they didn't think it important. Anyway, I'll take them with us. Pick us up from the same place you dropped me off. Cliff out."

Sophia starred at Cliff while she decided just what topic she was going to disagree with him on first, so Fayt filled in the silence. "Vendeeni? What are they doing here? And what do you mean you're taking us with you?" _So, that alien was a Vendeeni?_ Sophia had heard of them, of course, they were a well advanced race, perhaps even more advanced than the Pangalactic Federation, but while they had rejected any notion of joining the Federation, Sophia was sure that they had never been hostile before either.

"You're taking us with you?" Sophia said.

"Oh, you heard that Vendeeni guy. It'll be safer. Look, think of it as being… kidnapped. Yeah, that's it. You'll be able to tell all your friends about it when it's over, and they'll all be jealous of the adventure you're about to have. I hear that there are people that will actually pay good money to be kidnapped, you know. Sort of. And it's a lot more fun than curling up in some dark room for the next day while you wait for the Federation to come save your hide, while hoping that the Vendeeni don't change their mind and just level this place. You could stay here while I leave by myself and forget your entire existence, but somehow I don't think you'd want that. Now, quit complaining and come along, will you?"

_You're rather too flippant, this situation is very serious._ At any moment, a section of the hall could collapse and kill them, or another, less-friendly Vendeeni might appear and decide that a couple of extra dead bodies wouldn't matter to the total.

"Sophia?" Fayt said. "I don't know exactly what is going on, but if my parents aren't here, then my must have escaped with the other passengers. We can't reach them from here, but if we get off of this planet sooner, the soon we can find them. This guy seems to know my parents through their business or research, so it'll probably be faster this way."

"Probably? You never even met this guy before today. Also, you don't know what kind off business it is. And he doesn't look like a researcher to me, more like a bodybuilder. Though with drugs, anything is possible I suppose."

"Hey!" Cliff said in something that sounded like, but wasn't quite shock. "There's no way this body is a fake! I'll have you know I'm a master at several martials arts of Klaus, not to mention VIP status in more places than you can imagine!" Cliff started to move on down the corridor again, this time not dragging them, just expecting them to follow. And Sophia found that while he didn't know anything about what this Cliff guy was about, it was certainly preferable to meeting another Vendeeni alone.

Cliff led them towards the back of the hotel through various narrow passages that would normally be reserved only for staff. Now, there was no one who cared to stop them. Whenever they came across a locked door, Cliff would first ignore Fayt's repeated protests about destroying property, and then knock the door down with little effort. "Hey, it's not like one more door will make a big difference to their repair bill now." He had a point, Sophia supposed.

After only a few minutes, Cliff lead them to a small courtyard in the open air, and light of the sun a sharp contrast to the hotel interior that made Sophia cover her eyes while she tried to adjust. Cliff spoke to his communicator again. "Okay, we're here. Mirage, can you read me?" Sophia waited a few seconds in silence as Cliff listened to the reply. "Got it, teleport three of us in ten." Cliff turned to Fayt and herself. "Alright, here we go. It'll be crowded probably, I wasn't expecting guests, but you'll survive."

A large shadow suddenly came over them, and Sophia looked up to see a ship, hovering over them. Not large at all, but it looked quite sleek. Immediately after, the tingling sensation that comes with teleporting was on her, and Sophia, along with Fayt and Cliff, vanished into light as they boarded the strange vessel.

* * *

**Dictionary: Vendeeni**

A species of humanoids that evolved on the planet Vendeen from creatures that resemble sharks. They are tall compared to most other humanoids, and have a highly advanced civilisation. Their population is estimated to be approximately the same as the number of Earthlings, at about 30 billion, but this makes them significantly less common than the combined Federation. Previously, the Pangalactic Federation has attempted to entice the Vendeeni to join, but the Vendeeni have rejected all attempts at a formal treaty, preferring to keep relations at arms length, but not going as far as to instigate a war.

In some respects, it is estimated that the Vendeeni are even more technologically advanced than the Federation, but although they have inter-stellar travel, they appear not to have the secrets of using Creation Energy, meaning their industrial and military capabilities are disadvantaged in a direct comparison due to having fewer energy resources to draw upon.


	30. C3 05 A Ship Without Regulations

**C3-5: A Ship Without Regulations**

**SD 772-12-14**

It was good to be back on board the Eagle. The small cutter class ship was fast, capable of both atmospheric and interstellar travel. And it had saved Cliff's life on more than on occasion. Of course, not everything about the ship was perfect. For instance, Cliff was feeling a little cramped for space. He'd gotten used to it after a while, but Cliff's guests were probably more familiar to a more spacious transport.

Here in the cockpit, there were two seats up front, where Cliff found his partner Mirage in control of the ship, as to be expected. In front of the seats was the main viewing screen, surrounded by hundreds upon hundreds of various controls. Of course, the ship had a computer that was capable of flying the ship almost without assistance, but in Cliff's line of work, one always had to be prepared for anything, including piloting a ship without any computer assistance. Artificial Intelligence was nice to have around, but one could never really understand them. Who really _knew_ how a computer made its decisions?

While there was space for the pilots, any passengers weren't so lucky. The cockpit had four more seats behind the pilots for passengers, but those were uncomfortable, especially compared to what his guests would normally be accustomed to. But there was nothing that could be done about it.

"Mirage, we're back. Allow me to introduce to you Fayt Leingod, the son of the two famous symbological researchers. To his side here we have Sophia Esteed, the daughter of their equally famous symbological researcher colleague. And on this side, we have the Eagle's co-pilot, Mirage Koas. Now, I know what you're thinking. But I don't think up any funny ideas, or you might meet a swift and painful death." Cliff gave a laugh with the last one, but it didn't look like they found it comforting or funny like he had intended.

Mirage stood up to greet the newcomers. A woman of average height, she had an unassuming smile on her calm face. She flicked her blond hair, tied into a long braid down, behind her.

Mirage, like Cliff himself, was a Klausian. Native to a world with much stronger levels of gravity, the result was a race of humanoids whose physical strengths ranked amongst the best in the galaxy. The average Klausian was said to be more than a match for even the best Earthling in any athletic competition, and Mirage (and Cliff himself) were far above average. They were both high ranking disciples of the Taijutsu martial arts, and would be a worthy match in a fist fight against just about anyone that Cliff had met. And he had met a lot of people. _Of course, in this age of technology and space travel, physical strength doesn't mean as much as being able to use one's brain or one's gun._

"Okay, there isn't much room in here, so dump your things in the escape pod, you can find it just slightly back the way you came easily enough," Cliff said, pointing behind them. Not that the two had much to dump, they were only carrying a few things like a book (made with real paper of all things) and other small things. "Then take any seat you like. Except mine."

After the two of them stopped staring, Fayt finally spoke up. "I wasn't thinking anything funny… Tell him Sophia."

_Try to keep up, will you? We went past that point a while ago._

"Why are you asking me?"

"Because I thought you'd support me. You aren't going to support me?"

"I didn't say that!"

Mirage smiled at the squabble. "Ah Cliff, you sure know how to pick them. It reminds me of seven years ago."

"And didn't that work out great for us?!" _Yes, that encounter sure was a miracle beyond all reckoning._

"What are you talking about?" Sophia asked.

"Oh, nothing really, just a private joke." Cliff said. "Mirage, what's the situation?"

"We've got new orders from the Diplo. We're to evade the military entanglements and return home. Lieber has a lock on the location of our actual targets."

"By 'actual targets', do you mean my parents?" Fayt asked.

"And what makes you say that?"

"Well, you were talking to them about some strange business before. And during the Vendeeni attack, instead of running away immediately, you were trying to break down the door to our room. That's kind of a giveaway."

"It's that obvious huh?" He parents were super geniuses, so it would be rather disappointing if their son failed to connect such obvious dots. "Yes, your parents were our target. You're not, but it would be rather irresponsible if I didn't take you out of that disaster zone safely while I had the chance. Anyway, sounds like you have nothing to worry about. You'll meet them again when we get to headquarters, so just chill out until then, okay?"

"And just where is this headquarters? And who are you?" Fayt asked.

"I uhhh… don't have security clearance to tell you that." That should be good enough to halt his questioning. He can't argue with rule makers that he can't find. Why did kids always have to ask questions like that? Fayt looked like he was going to persist anyway, but he didn't get the chance.

"Cliff, there's a very large ship approaching our position," Mirage said, speaking as calmly as she would while ordering coffee.

"Wha?! Who is it?"

"It appears to be a Vendeeni ship of some sort."

"Oh great. Well, let's not make any sudden moves. Hopefully they'll ignore us."

Mirage immediately crushed any hope of Cliff being able to relax in a voice that sounded as if she was anything but to a person who didn't know her. "That's unlikely; they're sending a transmission to us."

_A transmission to us? What the heck for? We're way too small to be of concern to them. And we aren't even the Federation! I don't like this. Still, it's not like we can just hide and pretend we're not here._

Cliff mentally prepared himself. "Put it through, audio only."

The Vendeeni voice that came through was quite formal. "This is the Vendeeni combat ship _Perlo_. Your have been identified as carrying a person of interest to Vendeen, and you are hereby ordered to surrender yourselves into our custody. Failure to do so may necessitate excessive force and possibly death."

"Hey, this is Federation space if you hadn't noticed. You guys don't have any authority here!"

"And you are not a Federation ship; you are not under the protection of the Federation," replied the Vendeeni, only very slightly less formal and slightly more tense than before.

"If you know we aren't of the Federation, then what do you want with us? Your new war is not with us."

"On the contrary, we have obtained recordings of either you or someone aboard your ship interacting with our target in a hotel on Hyda IV, and the conversation fragments we have heard contained subjects of intense interest to us. You will now surrender to us to discuss the full details and background information of that conversation. If you cooperate, then you and anyone accompanying you will be released without harm. If not, then I cannot guarantee that you will even survive to meet us. You cannot leave alive until we determine what you know."

"You really want to know what we were talking about, don't you?"

"Of course," the voice replied warily.

"We were discussing… a zero-G golf course in the nearby asteroid belt."

The speaker was silent for a moment and Cliff began to wonder if he had gone too far.

"While you are in our custody, I think we take the chance to learn about the cultural differences in humour between the Vendeeni and the Federation."

Rather than reply, Cliff cut the transmission. There was no reply that he could give that would fix it. The situation was unfixable from the beginning, so it didn't really matter.

_So now what do we do? I've only a few minutes before they get aggressive. But what do they want? Obviously, the person they on Hyda they were talking about was Dr. Leingod. Therefore they would be after me. But, it's pretty strange if they know I'm aboard this ship and I talked to Dr. Leingod that they don't know about his son and Esteed's daughter. The kids are probably kept out of the loop on the Leingod's research, but I wouldn't have thought the Vendeeni would pass up that chance to learn something from them if they're after me this badly. I suppose it's possible that the Vendeeni doesn't actually recognise them, perhaps they haven't hacked that far into the Federation database yet. Still, we can't take that chance. They might just be pretending to not know. We'll assume the Vendeeni is after them as well._

"Cliff?"

"Huh? Mirage?"

"You were out of it for a moment."

"Oh great," Fayt said, lifting his arms in the air in disappointment.

"Yeah, sorry. Just thinking things over."

"So what are you going to do?" Sophia asked.

"What am I going to do?! Kid, you must be just plain crazy if you think we can do anything but run. Mirage, full shields, I want-"

The ship suddenly rocked violently, preventing Cliff from finishing his orders.

"We received a hit from their disrupter cannon. The shields blocked most of the energy, but we've still suffered some damage to our engines and other systems."

Cliff gritted his teeth. "This is not the mission I had in mind."

_The Eagle's spacetime shields might be a slight cut above the average for a ship of her size, but it's still far outclassed by the Vendeeni ship's weapons. A single direct hit can probably finish us, even if our shields are at full power._

"Mirage, get us out of here. I don't care where, anywhere but here. Don't worry about setting coordinates, just go ASAP."

Such a plan had obvious flaws, something that Cliff's guests didn't fail to appreciate.

"What if we hit something?! We'd be killed instantly!" Fayt protested.

"We'll be killed instantly if we don't move kid! Space is big and empty. I've a hunch we'll be fine. Mirage, hit it!"

Fayt sat back down in resignation, just in time for the stars to stream away to the sides as the Eagle entered gravidic warp and away from danger. Travelling far faster than the speed of light, they were currently untraceable. Of course, the Vendeeni could have tracked them by predicting their destination based on where they were facing _before_ they fled, but that's why Cliff wanted to escape as quickly as possible, so the Vendeeni wouldn't have a chance to do that.

"Hah, piece of cake. I told you; those Vendeeni barely had a chance."

"Not yet Cliff. The damage we've sustained has damaged our gravidic warp engine. I'm taking us out of gravidic warp before the engine explodes."

"What?! Already?! Nothing's going right today, is it?" Just as quickly as they had entered, the Eagle left warp space, and Cliff returned to the endless ocean of star amidst the nothingness. "Well, where are we? Is there anywhere we can set down?"

"We've returned to normal space. The closet planet on the chart is… Elicoor II. It's environmentally safe for us, but it already has a population of humanoids. It's classified as an underdeveloped planet, so there won't be any assistance. The closet planet with space-faring tech is Avais VII, but I'm not sure we can make it that far.

The star chart of the local region appeared in a holographic display in front of Cliff's eyes, and Cliff took the chance to look over the chart carefully. In their current situation, Cliff figured they had maybe a 70% chance of making to Avais. It could be a lot worse, but then again, he'd rather not risk his life with only a 70% chance of living unless there was no other way.

"We'll pick Elicoor II then. Way I see it, the engines will definitely last till we get there. And if the Vendeeni made any attempt to track our path through gravidic space, they're much more likely to investigate the developed planets first. We'll hide on Elicoor II and call for backup from the Diplo there."

"Are you sure? Stuck on a populated but underdeveloped planet? That violates the UP3." Fayt said.

"It'll only be a few days, geez. Don't be such a baby about it. We can stay out of sight, and no one will be the wiser. It's not like we're going to waltz into the first town we find or anything. If you're really lucky, we might not even have to land. Mirage and I are heading to the engine room. You two can wait here."

***

"So, how did we even end up in this mess? And what are my parents doing?"

They barely had anything with them, all the belongings they had were basic communicators and Sophia's new book, stored in the escape pod to make room here. Just hours ago, they had been enjoying a holiday, and now they were refugees in a surprise war.

The Vendeeni were a quite a technologically advanced race, but had refused Federation membership when it was offered. Most people thought that they just valued their independence; they had never been aggressive against the Federation before. There were several other planets like that, such as Klaus, and if the Vendeeni wanted to colonise and manage its own worlds in peace, everyone thought it would be fine.

So, why had the Vendeeni suddenly attacked a Federation planet? In particular, one that held no strategic value? Hyda IV was far from the front line of the Pangalactic Federation's border with either the Aldian Empire or the space controlled by the Vendeeni. On top of that, while the Vendeeni's military power was quite respectable for a single culture, and they had advanced spacetime technology (perhaps even better than the Federation), they were a distance third to both the Federation and Aldian when it came to resources. They had no chance of winning any war against the Federation. Their strike against Hyda IV was a suicidal move. The Federation would likely respond to the attack by forcing the Vendeeni to assimilate into it.

What could they want so badly that they would sacrifice their culture's entire autonomy?

_That conversation? They Vendeeni sounded like they wanted Cliff. And Cliff wanted to talk to my parents. So…_

Fayt didn't want to think about it.

"They must be okay. I'm sure of it," Sophia said, practically reading Fayt's thoughts. "They must have evacuated before we got there. If we had gone to the evacuation point right away instead of our room, we would probably be with them now. They're sure to be worried about us."

_She's right. That's what must have happened. They _must_ be okay._

Fayt's self-reflection was interrupted by Cliff's voice coming in over the intercom.

"Hey, I need one of you to come down here and help me with something."

"What is it?"

"I need someone to hold some switches in place while we do a test. It'll be much faster with a third set of hands. So unless you like wasting your life in the middle of nowhere, I suggest you get down here."

"Right."

Fayt didn't really know anything about the maintenance of spacecraft, but if it got him and Sophia out of his mess any quicker, then it had to be done.

***

As soon as their guest entered the small engine control room, Cliff stood up to give him the quick rundown of the situation.

"Well, the good news is that the life support systems are pretty much fully intact. We could live up here for weeks. The bad news is that the engines were badly damaged. Mirage and I have rerouted the power through a few systems to try and compensate, and it will get us to Elicoor where we can do a bit more."

"So, what do you need me to do?"

"You see that open panel by the door? If you look inside, you can see several counters. Read them out to us, okay?"

Cliff returned to his sitting position aside the main port side engine computer, and set his glove's in-built computer to remotely change the engine's settings, while Mirage did the same with the Eagle's starboard side engine computer.

"Okay, Fayt. You see the various counter's, lit up in different colours, right. Tell me what the grey and red one's say."

"Umm… They say 120 and 154," Fayt said, his head straining in the wall to see.

"Great, the symmetry of the gravidic warp field isn't off by as much as I thought," Cliff said, and he began alternating between typing commands into the computer through his glove and the computer besides him. Across from him, Mirage mirrored his actions with her own wrist-bound computer. "Okay, how about now?"

"Umm… they both read 130 now."

"See, easy. It should be safe to start the engine now." Mirage didn't need to wait for Cliff's suggestion; she was already entering the commands needed to start up the engine. And then, the engines began to hum comfortingly, while Cliff felt a big smile cross his face.

"Ha! See? What did I tell you? This ship will outlast any battle!"

Suddenly, the universe conspired to prove Cliff wrong, as the room went dark, except for the odd flashing light. Cliff was forced to activate a small flashlight, one of many devices built into his glove. Pointing it around the room, he first spied a flat look of accusation of Fayt's face.

"Whoa. I didn't do that!" Cliff said. "How about you Mirage?"

"It wasn't me. We must have suffered more damage than the computer reported."

Of course, if the computer damage report system was damaged, who knew how really bad it was?

"Man, those Vendeeni really are a pain. But listen, you can still hear the hum of the engines. So we'll be alright. Well… um… Fayt? What are you doing?"

In the darkness, Fayt was banging on the metal doors that were the room's only exit. "What's it sound like?! I'm trying to get back to the bridge, but I can't open the door to the rest of the ship!" Fayt said. He then started pressing, over and over, the buttons to open the door, but that was just as useless as pounding on the door.

"We've redirected power from most of the ship's systems to the engines in order to jump start it," Mirage explained.

"So, what does that mean?!"

"We can't open it," Cliff said.

"What?! That's against safety regulations! Federation law states… well, I'm not sure what it states, but I bet there's something in there about making systems that can't trap people in the engine rooms just because the power went out!"

Cliff repeated the point he had made earlier to the Vendeeni, though he doubted Fayt would appreciate it any more. "If you hadn't noticed, this isn't a Federation ship. Also, we aren't even in the engine room. We're in the engine control room."

"Engine room, engine control room, they're the same thing!"

"You need to relax a bit. We cut a few corners when outfitting this ship, so it might not have all the features you might expect of a Federation certified ship. We don't have a lot of money to waste, you know."

"_Waste_?! You call functioning emergency doors a _waste_?!"

"With a ship like this, a good shot would kill us anyway. What use would doors be then? Better to spend the money on being able to get away in the first place. Plus, look on the bright side; our work got the engine started again, didn't it? Everything is going to be fine."

"We can't exactly pilot the ship from in here, you know."

"Yeah, well, your friend Sophia can pilot it."

"Sophia doesn't know how to pilot a ship!"

"Can she pilot a hover-car?"

"Well yeah. It's not exactly hard. Those things pretty much fly themselves."

"Then she can pilot this ship. It's so easy a baby could do it. She only has to land the thing on that planet Elicoor. The planet's pretty close, and it's not like she has to avoid enemy fire or anything." _This kid needs a vacation or something; he's so uptight with every problem._

"Guys? I don't think that will be happening," Mirage said.

"Huh? Why the heck not?" Cliff asked._ Mirage, what did I do to deserve all this bad news today?_

"According to this," Mirage said, looking at some message being transmitted from the ship's computer to her glove's computer, "the escape pod just ejected. With one passenger on board."

"What?!" Fayt and Cliff said simultaneously.

"I can't be sure, but it looks like the escape pod's interlocks were damaged, so it probably fired itself off once it sensed a life form inside. At any rate, I think it's safe to say we just ejected our other passenger."

"What?! You! You… This isn't right! You get her back right now!" Fayt leapt up to Cliff and tried grabbing him about his collar. But the size difference between them made any attempt to be threatening pointless. It would be almost comical, were the situation not so serious.

"Okay. Look calm down." Cliff waved his hands in a calming motioning, but made no attempt to push Fayt away. "She'll be fine. The escape pod will land on the nearest inhabitable planet. In other words, Elicoor. Which is where we're going anyway. She'll be fine."

"Fine?! Is that all you can say?!"

"Ugg…" Well, the kid did have a pretty big reason to be upset. _Maybe I went too far in trying to make it less serious that time, this one really is a big problem. What was she doing in the escape pod anyway?_ This problem could still be fixed, but Fayt wasn't going to be convinced anytime soon.

"Just one problem," Mirage said. "We were going to have Sophia pilot the ship. If the escape pod launched with her inside, we're kinda stuck here. Unless you want to reroute the power again, but considering the number of wire's that we've ripped apart to reroute the power the first time, I don't think we can do that. Well, not and still have any chance of making it to Elicoor."

"What are you saying, that we not only sent Sophia off into space by herself, but that also we're stuck in this tiny room, floating in space?!" Fayt finally let go of Cliff and started to pace the very limited room he had.

"Oh please, don't give up so easily. We'll just pilot the ship from in here."

"Um… how?"

Cliff thought for a moment before the answer came to him. "We can link the ship's computer to a communicator, like my glove's computer, and enter the piloting commands that way. It'll be crude, but it _can_ work."

Fayt immediately saw the obvious flaw in that plan. "But there's no monitor in here! You have no way to see where you're going!"

Not technically true, since his glove was capable of projecting a small (and horribly inadequate), holographic screen in the air. But Fayt probably didn't care about _technicalities_ right now.

"So, we'll be piloting blind. I admit it's not the most ideal solution, but the ship's computer can do most of the work. We'll land on solid ground, and the acceleration damping is still working fine, so we'll be perfectly safe! I tell you, being in this ship, you're as safe as... as safe as a turtle in its shell!"

"A turtle falling out of orbit. Blindfolded."

* * *

**Dictionary: The Eagle**

A small ship used primarily by Cliff and Mirage. It has been designed to be extremely fast and manoeuvrable, to evade combat rather than contest it. This has been achieved with extensive remodelling, including several additional Gravitic engine systems that are actually illegal for a ship that flies in Federation space. It also has the essential life-support systems to make long journeys somewhat tolerable, and some emergency systems, and hardly any room left for anything else. It is also not particularly suited for anyone not roughly of Earthling or Klausian proportions, and has no handicap access.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Unfortunately, it has become apparent that this story is far, far longer than I was expecting when I began writing it, and there is no real hope that I can finish it with even a few years at the current pace, nor do I have the skill to write any more quickly. As such, I am sorry to say that the chapter following this will be the last. As I don't like to leave things hanging, it will contain a plot summary of the entire story as I had planned.

To the people who have been reading this story, thanks very much for your time, it has been really appreciated.


	31. C3 06 and the Plot Summary

Note: as previously mentioned, this is the last chapter I am going to write. The summary for the entire story is at the end of this chapter, if you want to know what I had planned to happen.

* * *

**Chapter 3-5: Philosophy**

**SD 772-12-15**

Well, the crash had been rather successful as crashes go. Sophia was now in the middle of nowhere, with nothing at hand except a book. She was lucky that the ship's power had survived just long enough for her to get Fayt's location before shutting down. She didn't know how long she would have to wait, but she had to eat eventually, so she couldn't stay where she was.

So she had started making her way to only structure she could see, a wooden house in the middle of a far off plain. She wasn't sure if this was the right thing to do, what if someone came looking for the escape pod while she was gone? But looking back at the pod, it was useless to stay and starve, so she turned around again. The Federation could find her, no matter where she went on the planet anyway by tracking her translator's transmissions.

But… now it was closer? Sophia started to second guess herself, surely she couldn't have moved towards it without realising it? Indeed, she was now so close she might have walked right into it.

Sophia knocked on the door, which creaked open at her touch. It sounded very old, but it looked brand new.

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

Inside, she could see an old-fashioned (by Earth standards) room. A square wooden table was set up in the middle of the room, with a pair of plain lit candles in the centre, although Sophia couldn't see any reason to light candles at this time of the day. Two wooden matching chairs were set up on either side of it. On the walls of the room, except to make space for the windows, were shelves and more shelves, each filled to spilling point with books and miniature figurines. All the way to the tops of the tallest shelves, that Sophia was too short to reach, they seemed more sized for a giant. Sophia couldn't help but take a closer look at the museum. Small statues of mythical beasts (and a few not quite so mythical), and sculpted men and woman in all sorts of poses, made of stone and crystals of many colours. A few were quite explicit on their subject matter, and not something many would leave out in the open. There were also funny globes, and locked boxes, like jewellery boxes, or music boxes and the like. There was even a tall stand of what appeared to be a DNA model. The books were also strange. Sophia stepped in to get a closer look, and saw that while many of them were unintelligible (as she had expected), a few seemed to actually be in the terran language that she understood!

Perhaps the strangest thing on the shelf was what looked like a black globe. Sophia went up close to see it in more detail, but the thing was entirely without texture, and seemed to absorb everything that fell on it.

"I wouldn't touch that, if I were you."

Sophia nearly fell over in shock, and faced the voice's owner. Standing in the doorway was a young woman with long blue hair. She appeared to be about Sophia's age, and stood slightly shorter than Sophia herself. Since Sophia wasn't particularly tall, it made her wonder why such a girl would choose to own a house with such tall shelves. _She must live here with someone else._ She wore a long and wide dress, simple and elegant. A stark contrast that made Sophia wonder if her outfit was appropriate for this planet. A tank top, jeans and sandals were probably not what the people of this world were use to.

"Brought me another book for my collection, have you?"

The book that Sophia had retrieved from the escape pod was all she had. It was that, a few translators and a communicator. Sophia gripped the book closely to her chest.

The other woman walked in slowly, closing the door behind her, and began to proudly stride about her shelves, waving her arms gently to show her collection off.

"What you see is a small fragment of my collection of memories. Everything here was lovingly crafted as a testament to the world as it used to be and as it will be."

Sophia didn't know what to say to that. When a period of silence had passed, the woman moved onto another topic.

"I suppose you are lost and looking for directions?"

"Y-yes. That's right."

"Follow the river downstream, and it will only take you half the afternoon to get to a town. From there you can find whatever you like." The woman pointed out one of the windows to the only river that Sophia had seen since she had landed here. That makes sense; regions where rivers meet the sea would probably be an ideal place for intelligent people to live near, assuming they're humanoids.

"Oh, is that right?"

"Yes, I'm afraid I can't come with you, but I think you should be safe enough."

That was disappointing. Sophia hadn't asked, but it would have been really nice to have a guide in this world. Sophia needed to look for Fayt, and she needed to get supplies and directions to do that.

"Of course, you'll have some trouble conversing with the locals, so I suggest you attach yourself to someone nice who happens to be going to where you want to go. I'm sure you can let a secret with using the translator slip to one or two people."

_Where do I want to go? To wherever Fayt is, of course. To leave this world and return to mine._

"I'm trying to get to a place west of here." Sophia tried to recall all the information she could about the Eagle's crash location that the escape pod could tell her. "It's a mountainous region on the western half of the other continent. It would be snowing there around about now." Sophia didn't know why she tried, but she attempted to sound as if she knew the names already, but merely hadn't said them to avoid confusing her host. She didn't think she was able to carry it off, but then again, the blue-haired woman didn't seem to react.

"You mean the Kingdom of Airyglpyh? You have a long way to travel in that case. You must have met with some misfortune to be here without any supplies instead of over there."

"Yes, well, the less said about that, the better."

"You don't have to tell me anything. If you want to go to Airyglyph, find a merchant or other traveller to take you there. You'll need money, of course…"

_Of course, but I don't have any money!_

"… and you'll probably want to dress in something a little more fitting with local customs."

"Oh, right." _How am I going to do that?_

"I'll lend you something."

_I didn't actually ask that question, did I?_

"You will?!"

"Yes. You'll won't get anywhere by yourself as things are now, and we can't have that. Wait here for just a second; I will get you a dress that will not look out of place in Airyglyph or Aquaria." The woman moved to the back part of the room, behind a free-standing screen made of wood. Sophia couldn't see what she was doing, but the woman sounded like she was

_Aquaria? Where's that?_

"I'm sure that, given the war between them, you'd rather be able to easily fit in both," the woman offhandedly said from behind the screen.

She came out holding an ordinary pink, full length dress, along with a brown shawl. Sophia had seen the like; it seemed similar to what women on Earth wore some time long ago, before they discovered electricity. A full length dress, it was far more plain than the images Sophia conjured up in her mind many times before about what life was like back then, but real life was always far more practical than history was made out to be. Sophia decided that she would just wear it on top of the clothes she was already wearing so she wouldn't have to carry those too. "I think this is the prefect thing for you," the girl said.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

The blue haired smiled. "Just the one?"

"You, you're an offworlder, aren't you?"

The woman gave a childish giggle. "What makes you say that?"

"You can understand what I say. Either you have a translator, or you already know how to speak Terran. And these book and items. They couldn't come naturally to someone of an underdeveloped planet."

"What makes you so sure?" The girl gave a secret smiled for a fleeting moment. "But you're right; I am not from 'around here', as you suggest."

"So, why are you here?"

"I'm here because I'm waiting for someone. I'm a thinker, you see. And I'm in the process of making my own… philosophy, you might say, but I can't do it alone."

"Who're you waiting for?"

The woman stared at Sophia for a moment before answering. "Oh no-one important." She seemed to find this observation funny, but kept the joke to herself.

_Then why are you waiting for them?_

"Anyway, I think you'd best be going, if you want to make if before it gets dark."

"Well, thank you. You've been so kind to me. I'm so lucky to have met you."

"Oh, not at all," the girl said back.

"No, I really mean that." The girl stood there smiling, hands behind her back. When she didn't say anything for over a minute, Sophia wasn't sure if she should do anything else, so she turned around to open the door.

But when she opened it, she found the blue-haired girl standing on the other side, still passively smiling.

Sophia took three steps back in shock. _How in the world?_ She quickly looked behind and confirmed that the girl wasn't in two places at once, she really had moved instantly to the outside of the house. _Symbology? An advanced teleporter?_

"I _really_ mean that, too. I am very lucky to have met you, but you are _not_ at all lucky to have met _me_. _Sophia Esteed._"

Only now that the woman had said her name, did Sophia realise that she had never introduced herself.

"H-How?"

"It's very easy when you have a friend who can travel through time, and tell me all I want to know."

"Time travel? That's impossible."

"Don't lie. Your own Federation knows perfectly well that time travel is possible, even if they're too stupid to know how. They know of the Time Gate of the planet Styx at the very least, and of course they suspect so much more. And the Federation aren't the only ones, there's a reason Aldian and the Vendeeni are in conflict with the Federation right now. It all comes back to that. And your own father was amongst them, researching it! And now what do we have here, but the results of his lifetime of work, and the work of thousands of others, condensed. Here at this time and place, yet she is still not ready to embrace the love I bring."

The woman was talking more to herself now, rather than Sophia. _Am I seeing someone devolve into insanity?_ "Okay. Enough to this?! Tell me straight, just who are you and what to you want."

"Fine. I am one and many. Scattered across all of space and time, and beyond limits one can only imagine. Driven towards our fate. I think a girl like you could understand what this means, right Sophia? Nothing is this world is a mere coincidence, as long as I am involved. Let me tell you something. There's something out there, always watching us." The girl jerked her head around quickly, trying to catch a glimpse of the one she claimed to be spying on them, somewhere in the house. "Dark Sphere has foretold me of your coming, and promised me much, that I will see fulfilled. The wisdom I need and love will soon be mine." The girl stretched her arms out towards Sophia, as if to embrace her. Sophia wanted nothing of the sort.

"And in the meantime, my dear Sophia, you and I are going to have a little _fun_."

Before she knew what was happening, Sophia let loose a ball of fire at the crazy girl. Maybe it was just the way she had said that last word, Sophia didn't know, but something inside her flashed into her mind for an instant before being extinguished, and in that moment Sophia had let go, flinging off reckless symbology. Sophia had learnt how to do basic symbology while at school, and while her teachers had called her somewhat talented, she'd never been able to do it without concentrating before. A small ball the size of Sophia's fist appeared and caught the crazy girl by surprise, but she still managed to flex her body to the side at the last moment, letting the fire pass by her harmlessly. If Sophia had been properly concentrating, she could probably have made it follow her target's movement, but the fact that she had done it by instinct was a small miracle in and of itself. It was actually a bit scary; she had never lost control of herself like that before.

"T-That's not…" the girl stuttered, just as shocked as shocked as Sophia by her actions. But then she recovered and began to laugh. "Yes, that's it! I can see it! It's still small, because you don't understand it or yourself. But that's fine; we have all the time in the world. We will meet again, Sophia, once you have discovered more about yourself. Dark Sphere has made a promise to me, and we will both fulfil it."

***

Sophia woke up, and began to stand before immediately clutching her head. She massaged her temples, trying to relieve her headache.

_What happened? Did I fall asleep?_

Sophia looked around. She was on a flat plain of soft glass. On one side, she could see a large river, running approximately eastwards.

_This is, Elicoor, after the escape pod crashed. The crash must have taken more out of me than I thought. I'd better get to a town for shelter._

Without thinking, Sophia put on the pink dress that was in her hands, placed her book into a bad that contained a little bit of the local currency, and set off to walk along the river bank.

***

"Oh terrific, we've landed right in the middle of a city!" Fayt said. "I bet the makers of the UP3 would be real happy with us right now."

Fayt stared at the holographic monitor, watching the outside environment. Right now, there were several people gathering around in the snow, staring at the spacefarers surprise entrance.

_The odds of landing directly on a populated town are astronomically small. How could we be so unlucky?_

"You know, those sarcastic remarks of yours are not helping right now," Cliff replied. "Look, we'll figure a way out, okay. We'll only have to be here a few days till someone fetches us."

"And what about Sophia?!" Fayt's mind rushed though a thousand thoughts with each minute, a whirlwind of future possibilities that he tried to organise into a plan of action. He couldn't think clearly, although he knew he had to.

"According to the computer, her escape pod landed safely, but we lost the signal a few minutes after that due to a power failure." Mirage said.

"Look I know she's okay," Cliff said. But for some strange reason, he's tone had changed, he seemed much more serious than he had a second ago. He was staring very intently at Fayt.

"What are you looking at?"

"Nothing. I just thought I saw something familiar in your eyes for a moment. But I must be mistaken, and we don't have time to worry about that now. We can spend a bit of time looking for Sophia, if it'll make you feel better."

_I don't see how anything can make me feel better right now._

* * *

**SUMMARY**_  
_

Well, here's the summary of the entire story.

For those of you reading this, and especially those who gave feedback, thanks very much for your time. I do read your comments, and I find them helpful. Hopefully, you can find something of interest in this summary. And if you don't like it, you can comfort yourself with the knowledge I'll never get to write it!

Hopefully, I haven't confused myself back and forth with the names, I still get confused which one belongs where…

While this is the overall plot as it currently stands, I am always in a flux about certain things. And a lot of characters are mentioned minimally or not at all, but ideally they would appear if I was writing the whole thing out.

Sorry that this section isn't edited quite as well as normal, but hopefully it's all still readable.

* * *

**STAR OCEAN 1 section**

**SD 346**

Roddick, Millie, and Dorn live happy and fairly boring lives in their village, on planet Roak.

Millie's father (Maltoth) is called away to fight a disease in nearby village. After several days without news, Millie is too worried to do nothing, and she follows. Roddick and Dorn feel obligated to follow her.

They find the disease (which generates a lot of mysterious black liquid in the host) to have killed/be killing everyone in the village, including Maltoth. In a last ditch effort, they seek a legendary herb that can supposedly cure everything (and how likely is such a thing to exist?). It is revealed that Dorn is infected too, and is not yet but will soon suffer the symptoms before dying.

They get to the supposed location of the herb on top of a mountain, where a strange girl tricks them off the cliff, and the group then meets Ronyx and Ilia, who 'magically' appear before them. They have come because they are at war with Lezonia, who has had some activity on Roak.

(Note: The ghost girl is one of the Seven Devils, a major myth that appears across multiple planets. They are named after the colours, Violet, Blue, Green, Yellow, Grey, Red and White. White is supposedly against the 6 others).

After overcoming the cultural/language differences, Ronyx offers a possible cure if Roddick's group comes with him. The five are teleported on board Ronyx's ship, the Calnus.

Dorn is put into quarantine to be studied. Roddick and Millie explore the ship. They get new clothes.

Dorn tries to come to terms with dying and his feelings (especially for Millie). Millie 'somehow' appears in Dorn's isolation room. Later, Dorn puts it down to a hallucination from the virus.

Study of the virus indicates that it was most likely artificially made, to create the black liquid. This black liquid absorbs all radiation somehow, and breaks a few know laws of physics (note: the chemical structure is also a symbol, bypassing normal physical laws).

This is discussed in a meeting. The use of the liquid as a weapon is immediately recognised. The Terran Alliance is in a war with Lezonia, this liquid is suggested as why Lezonia have been doing so well of late. New methods of fighting the war are suggested.

Millie is hard on herself, because she got excited by everything, but at a time when her father is dying. The mysterious Dark Sphere taunts Dorn, and then Millie. Attacking Millie in her room, Millie flees.

At the same time, Ronyx is having a meeting with Lezonia, who claims that another power, Jie Revose of Fargett, is forcing them to fight the Terran Alliance. From the meeting, Ronyx learned that the virus was made 300 years ago on Roak, based on the DNA of a demon king Asmodeus.

At the same time as that too, Dorn is being frozen so he can survive until a cure is found. Dark Sphere's attack triggers an alarm, Roddick rushes off to find Millie fleeing Dark Sphere, but he can do anything but run too. Dark Sphere seems to somehow know Roddick and Millie.

Ronixis's meeting is cancelled, and then he has to fight Dark Sphere, but all the ship's weapons are ineffective. Dark Sphere appears to have the properties of a black hole. It is invincible to every attack, absorbing everything.

Roddick suggests that since Dark Sphere can pass through everything, they rock the ship to throw it off through the wall. Ronyx tries it, and it appears to work. Dark Sphere is gone, out through the ship's walls.

The HQ of the Terran Alliance is informed of all this, but elects to have Ronyx wait around, which Ronyx doesn't like. They probably won't treat the Roakians well. Roak's population is deemed un-saveable.

Ronyx decides to use time travel to get to Roak's past and find a cure from Asmodeus's DNA, thinking it important if the Alliance is to save Roak, and win the war against Fargett. Illia demands to be taken along, and so do Roddick and Millie.

They go to Styx, where the time gate is. They learn from the Time Gate that the future ends in 300-ish years (note: about the time SO3 takes place), which makes no sense to them. The Time Gate lets them go to the past.

They find themselves split into two groups for some unknown reason. Millie and Ronyx are in Van (the forest like one), and Roddick and Ilia are in Astral (the desert like one). They don't understand why they have been split like this, but the Time Gate must have done it for some reason. (note: I'm skipping Past Muah to save time.)

Roddick comes to a tavern. He is treated well, because he and Ilia have good quality clothes, Roddick looks like a knight. Also here is Ciuss, but he isn't impressed. Roddick thinks knights and honour and stuff are awesome. So where some real knights (of Astral rather than Portmith, but it's all cool to Roddick regardless), enter and start abusing their power over the locals, Roddick is aghast and calls them out. For this, Roddick is backstabbed, but the attack in useless against Roddick's space-age armour, and a brawl insures. Ciuss is a lot more impressed now, and Roddick forces the knights to apologise.

Ilia comment's on Roddick's actions at that Tavern. By claiming the Knights of Portmith are followers of such ideals, and then demonstrating in front of a large group these ideals, Roddick is possibly acting as the source of honour that his younger future self will adopt.

Roddick is confused by this, saying that he got his attitude from the knights. If the knights got their attitude from him, then it's just a circle, and where did it really come from? Ilia explains that although these events are a closed loop, it is possible that some other action could also have inspired the knights, and then when Roddick travelled into the past, he supplanted that event with his own. That original event doesn't happen, but it whatever it was, it could be viewed as one of the origins of the Knights of Portmith. Of course, it is also impossible to prove with the information that they have now that the events loop because of this.

Ciuss joins for a while, but refuses to go anywhere near his home town for reasons he won't explain, so he leaves the group. Passing Tatori, Roddick gets Perrici out of a mess with pirates (who runs off), then acquires Ashlay and Ioshua in his group (who don't). He also hears a lot about the demon war on Roak, and about the Legendary Heroes of the past who apparently recently passed through here. Roddick wishes he could meet them.

Meanwhile, a young featherfolk girl with broken wings forces her way into an isolated ice cave, carrying a crystal orb and the Demon's Mirror. There, she offers them to a race of ancient people frozen in the ice, in return for the power needed to avenge the death of her family and years of brainwashing as an assassin for the demons.

Suddenly, she is frozen in ice, and for a moment thinks she has been tricked. But then realises that she can now see her own body added to the hundreds frozen in ice, while she looks on from a new body, one that lacks wings. Immune to cold and able to move the crystal orb with just thoughts, she leaves to find the demon that ruined her life.

Millie and Ronyz encounter Marvelle. Seeing as they all have the same goal of finding the demons, they agree to join up for now. Marvelle comes off as very single minded about killing the Crimson Shield, a man who killed her family and is said to have a shield given to him by the Red Devil.

The first of Jie's starship's crashes, but the group is too far away from the Moore continent to investigate. But it means that they have to find each other fast and then Asmodeus before Jie gets to him.

(Some stuff happens here that I haven't quite figured out)

Anyway, the groups meet up, and Marvelle wonders if Ioshua is the brother she thought was dead.

Access to Daemonium can be made supposedly from the Purgatorium, a ruin created by the Old Race.

At the Purgatorium, they discover that the Old Race came from Earth, the continent of Mu. The ruins have computers that describe their past. Their civilisation grew powerful enough to create a wormhole that sent them through space. Most of the population died in the cold emptiness of space, but two groups survived. Those that ended up on Roak, but have now perished, and those that ended up on Fargett. Those on Fargett discovered the technology of Symbological Genetics, the ability to instil symbols into a person DNA. They used this to help survive the harsh environment, but in particular, two stood out. These were Asmodeus and Jie.

Since then, Asmodeus took over the demons, and is on Roak trying to learn the Old Race's technology before his larger plans, whatever they may be. Jie seems to have realised that the Terran Alliance exists as the greatest current power in the galaxy, but his motives are not clear either.

From the Purgatorium, the group enters the Daemonium. Here, they at last encounter the Crimson Shield, the man who murdered Marvelle and Ioshua's family, and Ashlay's former friend. They attack him, and win, freeing him from the demon's mind control.

The Crimson Shield explains that a copy of his body was made through the Demon's Mirror, and that a demon used it to commit crimes in his name. Meanwhile, he has been trapped here, unable to do anything but fight blindly for the demons. The false Crimson Shield is currently attacking Astral.

The party races to Astral Castle to fight the Demonic Crimson Shield. There, they fight, and Marvelle breaks her crystal orb in the fight. Bcause of her single-mindedness on revenge, she is able to use the shards to kill the demon Crimson Shield. But afterwards, she realises that she accidentally kill Ioshua at the same time, because she paid no attention to anything but her revenge. Marvelle throws herself off the castle roof (symbolic!).

(Note: obviously, this would be a pretty controversial plot decision, so who knows whether I would have gone through with it. Not that there are many people reading this to care…)

The party goes back to Daemonium, and finds Asmodeus. They need his symbologically altered DNA, so they have to fight him to get it.

During the fight, a blue-haired girl (note: this is Philia) and the legendary heroes appear, and somehow, they look identical to Roddick and Millie. Also, possibly Ciuss and some others are with them too. Philia has come here to support Jie in his moment of triumph.

Roddick: "if they look identical to us, how come no one said so? The King of Astral would surely have commented on such a thing."

Philia is surprised that her heroes look identical to people that already exist, and thinks that someone is playing a joke on her.

Jie does appear, and his forces subdue Asmodeus, and then steal a blood sample from him. They leave, but Jie remains behind. Philia decides to kill Roddick and Millie for impersonating her legendary heroes. Roddick and everyone else still have no idea what is going on.

To confuse things further, and _third_ set of Roddick and Millie appear, along with some other people they don't recognise (yes, I know this is getting confusing, but it will be explained later, all thanks to time travel). These ones have come to collect Jie and the Demon's Mirror. Dark Sphere also appears, so the newest group ends up taking everyone through a time warp.

**END of the STAR OCEAN 1 section.**

* * *

**STAR OCEAN 2 section**

**SD 366**

Claude is an ensign, exploring the planet Miccondia with is famous father Ronyx. While there, he accidentally activates a teleporter, sending him to the Shingo Forest on Expel. There, he meets Rena, who is having trouble dissuading Allen, but Claude detects and removes the influence of the stone Allen was carrying. The stone emits a mist that causes people to lose control of their emotions. Claude uses his phase gun in the fight. Rena takes the weapon as a sign that Claude is the Hero of Light.

Back in Rena's village Arlia, she shows Claude around, but is greatly disappointed when Claude insists that he's not the Hero of Light. Supposedly, demons have been attacking the continent of Ell (where Allen got the stone from). Claude wants to leave the planet, and learns that the demons have something to do with an object from space. So he decides to investigate it. Rena wants to go along to, deciding that this is the right time to find out about her true parentage. Rena also has a dream where she is repeatedly attacked by Dark Sphere, but she doesn't understand it.

They meet archaeologist Ernest of the planet Tetragenoit on the way and travel with him. Ernest is also stuck on the planet, so he and Claude want to work together.

The first stop is Krosse, where they hope to see the wedding of Prince Clauzer and Princess Rozaria on their way. They lose track of Ernest, but meet the Crest Magician Celine and her boyfriend Clyde. Clyde is revealed to be Prince Clauzer. Then they have to hide from Princess Rozaria, who is searching the town in ager that her fairy tale wedding isn't going to happen. They also meet a strange girl Philia who appears to be running from something, and might be of the same species as Rena, but when she and Rena are alone, she leaves without explanation.

The party (of Claude, Rena, Celine and Clyde) travel to Kurik, from which they hope to ride a ship to Ell. There, they find Philia again, proclaiming the town's doom, followed by an attack by Dark Sphere. Dark Sphere seems angry at Celine and Clyde in particular. And angelic Proclaimer battles Dark Sphere in vain, and then Dark Sphere swallows the entire town except for Philia, Claude and Rena. Philia explains that Dark Sphere constantly harasses her for some unknown reason.

Needing another way to get to Ell, the go to Celine's hometown Marze. Marze is currently in a crisis, as several children have been kidnapped by bandits in the nearby forest. In addition, several dead soldiers have appeared outside the town. Philia deduces that the soldiers guard Rozaria, and the princess has also been taken by the bandits. For some reason, the bandits want the Book of Sealing that Celine was carrying.

Marze looks for help, and Dias, a childhood friend of Rena's volunteers. Rena is happy to work with him, but when Claude objects, decides to work with Dias anyway. Ernest reappears, and so they enter the forest separately (Rena and Dias as one group, Claude, Ernest and Philia as the other). They get to the bandits hideout, an old ruin of an ancient civilisation (note: Nede built it). They find many bandits slain by someone else.

In the ruin, they find themselves in orbit around Expel somehow. They meet the princess, who was behind the kidnapping. Rozaria first tricks Ernest into a teleporter, sending him to an unknown location. Rozaria then sends two protoforms (grey humanoids without features), which she claims that special people like herself are made from, rather than born. What 'special people' means is not yet explained. After the protoforms are defeated, she takes up the battle herself. A tough opponent, she is defeated, but the party must flee the ruin before they can investigate it (with the children of Marze).

Rozaria auto-resurrects from death, and is angry that she lost.

Claude, Rena and Philia decide to stay in Marze for a little and learn from the town. Dias leaves.

The party (of Claude, Rena and Philia) has crossed the ocean and arrived at the city of Laceur, where they plan to stop for a bit before continuing to Ell. The city is busy because of the Laceur Arms tournament that is about to happen. Remembering that Dias will be there, Claude decides to enter.

In addition, there are several interesting competitors here. These include:

- Some guy named Ashton who wears a giant backpack all the time, and won't take it off. He claims to need the money to help treat a sick girl (Eleanor). Rena meets him and wants to help him somewhat.

- Some girl named Opera, who also carries a backpack. Claude meets her separately, and recognises her as a Tetragenoit. He finds out she's looking for Ernest, which Claude knows about.

In addition, they meet Precis here somehow.

Ashton and Opera are matched in the arena. Ashton fighting with twin swords and Opera with a knife (both still refusing to drop their backpacks for some reason…). Ashton gets the advantage, so Opera is forced to take her rifle out of her bag (against the UP3, but Opera doesn't care), and she starts assembling it in the middle of the fight. One competed, she gets the advantage, so Ashton brings out his secret, the backpack was really there to hide the fact he has two dragon heads stuck to his back. This gives him the advantage again

Naturally, everyone in the audience (as well as the party) is surprised by these events.

But then Ashton loses due to bad luck (note: the Ashton/Opera battle is a reference to the fact you could only have one of them in the game, as well Ashton's horrible luck stat).

Later, Claude goes up against Dias. Claude is rather mad at Dias, and wants to show him just what he can do. But ultimately, he loses. Dias is rather impressed by Claude's progression since the Marze incident, and Claude is surprised that Dias is impressed at all.

Dias later goes on to win the tournament, before running off again. Ashton, Opera and Precis join the party for a bit.

Leon sees Rena at the tournament, and recognises her pendent as the item that the Red Devil told him about, and which he needs to build a weapon based on the Aquarian Thunder Arrow, which Leon has never heard of, but is impressed by the design. Bowman has returned to lead the research department. Leon and Bowman use their influence to have the King of Lacuer meet with Rena's party. After hearing more about the situation against the demon war, Philia persuades Rena to let Leon use the pendent for the weapon temporarily.

At the frontline of the war, the group helps head off the demon army until Leon finishes his work on his weapon, the Laceur Hope. Alan shows up again. They use Leon's weapon to repel a demon attack.

The group Cannon (Claude, Rena, Philia, Leon and Opera) heads off to Ell with the Lacuer Hope on board a ship, with the aim of destroying the demon's base with the cannon and thus winning the war. The rest stay behind to help with the defence of Lacuer. Some more Claude-Dias rivalry at this point.

During the journey, the demons attack, the cannon doesn't work because the demons have spacetime shields, and Claude is confused about where they got those from. The demons take Philia away (back to her father), as well as the pendent/energy stone and then blow the ship up. The party retains possession of Philia's music box.

The party washes ashore on Ell.

The ghost-Rena/Green Devil appears before Dias, and explains to him what has happened. Tells him to go to Elruia, else Rena and the others will be in trouble. And tells him a bit about what avatars are, but doesn't know everything.

Dias takes the rest (Precis, Bowman, Ashton, Alan) with him.

Claude's group head's up Eluria tower to find out what's going on, defeat the demons and rescue Philia. They get beaten up, but the rest of the party comes along and gets them out.

They defeat the demons, and confront the Ten Wise Men (TWM) at the top of Elruia tower. The TWM detail their plot, to take Nede out of the sub-universe, and then use it as a base to conquer the galaxy. They were using the demons to help them escape their prison. They have finally all escaped from the prison they were in, and don't need the demons anymore.

Notably, Philia is standing with the TWM, and she says that Gabriel is her father. The TWM tell them that Expel will shortly be destroyed.

Naturally, the party doesn't want that, and goes to fight them. One of the TWM, Metatron, claims he can win against the entire party within 1 minute (and he does). The TWM then disappear, teleporting to Nede. Philia remains behind for a moment, and then teleports the party to Nede as well. Expel is destroyed.

The group doesn't know what to make of Philia.

On Nede, they meet Narl, who tells the party about the history of the TWM. He tells them about Nede's past as well. Nede invented a tech that allowed them to create sub-universes, which acts as a prison. Inside, time doesn't flow forward, but cycles, so that those trapped inside live forever without progress or aging, birth or death. The TWM men were defeated and imprisoned in a sub-universe, and then Nede put themselves in one to separate them from the rest of the universe. Narl and the rest have lived for the past few million years like this. Somehow, the TWM have escaped the prison universe, and have also pulled Nede out of its sub-universe, so they are now both back amongst the universe as a whole. Presumably, they are getting ready to take Nede over, and Nede's forces aren't prepared to fight back. Getting outside help such as our parties, before then is the only way.

The population of Nede is in disarray, since its society is suddenly allowed to progress and age again.

They meet up with Noel and Chisato. Noel, now a zoologist, used to act as a mole for Nede, publicially supporting the TWM while feeding info to Nede that helped them win against them the first time. But due to the circumstances of his actions, a large portion of the population thinks he is a traitor, despite being officially cleared by the government. So he lives his life away in isolation when not teaching at the university.

Philia sends the party a message, saying it's time for Rena to learn about her past, and to meet her at the Field of Love. At the same time, several of the TWM attack various places on Nede, and the group is forced to split into smaller groups to deal with them. Claude and Rena go alone to meet with Philia.

(Note: The Field of Love isn't a power source like in the game; rather, it is basically a romantic hang-out. Philia is fond of it.).

The first thing that Philia states is her anger at the failure of her plan. She tells them that while she was travelling with them, she did things to make it look like Rena was bullying her (for instance, disappearing the first day without reason when only Rena was there), so that Rena would look possessive to Claude (she he would reject her), while appearing to be weak and dependent on Claude, with the hope that he would focus his attention on her. At the same time, she was trying to be friendly with Rena to learn what kind of person she really was now.

Once there, Philia explains _her_ plan and story. A long, long time ago (about 700,000,000 years ago), she learned that this universe was not the only one, but it was created by God who lives in another universe (the 4D universe).

Philia realised she could create people, from prototypes, just like the gods of the 4D universe did. And these people (her avatars) would do everything she wanted. And the first avatar she created was Rena (fully grown). But for some reason, Rena started acting on her own, rather than doing everything for the sake of Philia, which cumulated in her escaping from a research facility that was destroyed using an experimental spacetime displacement device. This ended up putting her in the Shingo forest, where she was adopted by the people there.

Since then, Philia created thousands of avatars for herself, usually as pairs of young couples that play out interesting stories for her. These avatar's did not necessarily know that was what they were, as long as they wanted what Philia wanted, that was enough. Philia got better at controlling them, and none since Rena had ever left for a very long time.

(note: Avatars are the people that 4D people use in the Eternal Sphere.)

Sometime later, when Philia was exploring the planet Roak, she encountered Dark Sphere for the first time. Dark Sphere promised to help Philia, and gave her advice in creating even better avatars to be her worshipping friends. But on Roak, she tried to meet Jie, an avatar Philia had created to be a partner for herself. Dark Sphere deliberately took Jie away from her by letting people steal him, including people who looked identical to avatars she had created. Indeed the avatars that looked identical to Roddick and Millie looked that way because Dark Sphere had suggested it. Philia took this as Dark Sphere betraying her, so she tried to leave Dark Sphere behind. But Dark Sphere followed her everywhere.

Philia thought that Rena was dead until they met again on Expel, a meeting that Dark Sphere had arranged for her. Philia decided to test Rena, to see if she would obey her and become her avatar again, but right from the beginning it was apparent that Rena was her own person that would go against Philia if she wanted to. Not only that, but it was on Expel that Prince Clauzer also rejected Philia's control, at around the same time. Where the two events related? Clauzer;s appearance had been made up long ago, as suggested by Dark Sphere, so was this another trick by Dark Sphere? Philia didn't care so much this time. Dark Sphere and Princess Rozaria, the one Philia had intended for Clauzer, set up a plot to get rid of Celine for ruining her fantasy, and then she attacked Celine's companions. Philia had not intended Rozaria to do this, but she exerted enough subtle control over Rozaria so the events would advance to world of her fantasy.

Philia says all she wants is to love everyone, and for everyone to love her, and she asks if Rena will once again become her avatar. Rena can have a happy life without worry. Rena rejects this out of hand, saying it's clear that Philia only knows how to use love for her selfish fantasy and as a weapon.

Claude and Rena try to convince Philia that although they don't know what Dark Sphere wants, Dark Sphere can only be trying to use her. As soon as Dark Sphere gets what it wants, Philia will be discarded. Philia retorts and says that she'll be the one to do the discarding, and that she'll get the power that Dark Sphere offers her, dispose of Dark Sphere, and then make her fantasy universe, where her life becomes one 'happy ever after' and everyone loves her, come true.

So Philia rejects Claude and Rena's proposal, and says that she will join Dark Sphere in whatever plan it has. And that she now has no interest in Rena, so she can now die. She says she convinced a few of the TWM to attack several places in order to spilt the group up (Note: yes, she's stringing along a few of the TWM as well, but she doesn't really care about them either), so she could face Claude and Rena alone here. But now that Rena has rejected her once again, it is clear that Rena is a blemish that should be erased from Philia's story.

Philia fights Claude and Rena, and uses the two protoforms again, who have now developed again. Philia proves to be far stronger than the timid persona that she presented when they first met on Expel. Based on Dark Sphere's knowledge, she finalises the protofroms as a young man with green hair and glasses, and a girl with brown hair.

Claude and Rena lose the battle, but are saved from death when a pair of dimensional hoppers suddenly appear and pull them back. One of these travellers looks identical to the girl protoform (so why make the protoform look like that?). Claude and Rena's story will be continued later.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party as halted the TWM temporarily. But it is clear that Claude is not coming back, and Dias is confused by everyone's attitude to the missing Rena. Or lack of it. What does that mean?

Nall says that if they can defeat the TWM, they can channel Nede's energy into restoring Expel from the past.

(Note: probably some other stuff here.)

Off to the battle the TWM again, some of them are killed, one maybe changes sides, and the rest survive just long enough to get pulled into 4D where the future party appears again to get Philia's music box (and why do they need that thing?)

**END of STAR OCEAN 2 section.**

* * *

**STAR OCEAN 3 section.**

**SD 766**

Fayt, Sophia, Robert and Ryoko are holidaying on HydaIV. Cliff appears and visits Fayt's parents on business (Fayt doesn't know what type, but it has to do with something 20 years ago).

The Vendeeni attack. Cliff finds Fayt and Sophia, and takes them away with him.

They (and Mirage) crash land on Elicoor II. Sophia is by herself in Greeton due to escape pod accident.

Meanwhile, King Airyglyph, Vox and Woltar send Albel to Greeton, with Mayu dragged along.

Alone on Elicoor, Sophia decides to head to a town. On her way, she finds a lone house, which she enters to find a woman called Philia. Philia claims she is searching for a Philia first offers to help her, by giving suitable clothes (note: identical to Ameena's clothes). Then she threatens Sophia, saying that Sophia has something that Philia want's and she will bide her time until she gets it. She and the house then vanish without explanation.

In Greeton, Albel tries to do some investigation. He sees someone he knows. Lias is a smith from one of the island nations that helped make Albel's metal arm. He's travelling with a three-eye man called Ernest. He tells Albel that he's fled his country for reasons he will not explain. At the same time, Albel has sent Mayu to talk to Sophia, who looks out of place here.

Upon finding that Sophia can use Runelogy (Symbology) without a tattoo, Albel immediately sees the possible benefit if Airyglyph's own soldiers can be taught this. Apparently, any nearby symbol can be used, not just tattoos, and you don't have to be a descendent of Aquaria either.

Unfortunately, Sophia doesn't understand how to use symbology without a written symbols, she just realised since landing that she could.

Airyglph is roughly in the direction where Sophia thinks Fayt landed. So the five of them head back to Airyglyph. Along the way they hitch an eventful ride on Greeton's trains.

Fayt, Cliff and Mirage crash into Airyglyph city. They are forced to flee the city guards. Nel (+Farleen+Tynave) spot this and give chase. When they catch up, Nel (rather forcefully) convinces Fayt to help out their cause against Airyglyph through the use of technology. Fayt agrees to come (since Sophia is in that direction), but is hesitant about providing tech against the UP3.

Vox believes the crash to be from Aquaria, and argues that immediate attack on Aquaria is needed, but the King and Woltar resist for now, thinking it is too disadvantageous. Neither wants Vox to get too much power, which might happen if he wins leading the war alone.

In Arias, they meet Clair, probably.

Passing through Peterny, Fayt meets a flower girl, Ameena, who happens to look just like Sophia. She apparently has some sort of lung disease, and is not very well. Fayt wants to try and help her. Ameena mentions that she has a friend in Aquaria that she hasn't seen for ages, and she is too ill to make the journey.

Fayt (naturally) decides to take her with them. Nel and Cliff both think this is a bad idea, and that Fayt gets led around by his empathy a little too easily. But they agree to it. They stay in Peterny for a few days.

Passing through Peterny, with Sophia dressed just like Ameena, Nel and Albel get confused as to which one is which, and both believe that one is possibly talking to the enemy (Nel and Albel). (Note: This would probably be written as a bit of a farce, as I think every story should have some humour, and this one doesn't have enough).

Nel and Albel encounter each other alone. Nel immediately recognises Albel, but not visa versa. They end up fighting, which Nel wins through use of traps and the environment. Albel, to his great shame, is forced to retreat.

Sophia, Albel and their group continue to Airyglyph. When they get there, Vox isn't very happy (Albel's back too soon), and immediately dismisses the idea that someone like Sophia could use symbols without tattoos, or that magic works differently to how Aquaria uses it. Really, he doesn't want anything Albel has discovered to be of any use in winning the war (to prevent Albel getting any of his fame). Vox accelerates the plans for the war before Albel's 'discovery' can mess anything up.

The final battle of the war between Airyglyph starts. Albel goes to the front lines to take part, while Sophia and the rest (Mayu, Lias, Ernest) stay behind, since there's no time for Sophia to explain anything about symbols.

Maria arrives on Elicoor with the Diplo. But Fayt and Cliff have already gone off to the battle lines to help maintain the runalogical cannons with Dion. Nel is in the battle itself, where she faces off against Albel. She finds that although she defeated Albel easily before, now that she is fighting in an open battlefield and unable to use any of her sneaky attacks. Albel beats her rather easily.

During the battle, a few Vendeeni battleships appear. Biwig teleports down with Robert in front of Maria. He explains the Vendeeni position, that the Federation researched something that he should not have (symbology), and that now God wants to kill them all for being too good at it. Biwig had aimed to try and appease God by offering Robert up and promising to erase all knowledge of the symbols, but Robert told him that Maria had in fact survived. The Vendeeni searched the records, to find that Maria is on the Federation database as the only one that lived.

However, the Vendeeni talks with Robert uncover that Robert created the children in response to the Time Gate's warning that God was going to wipe them out, not the other way around as the Vendeeni had supposed, and that appeasement was already too late. Biwig detests the idea, but the Vendeeni survival comes first, even if it means fighting God. And Biwig wants Maria's power to do it.

Another Vendeeni ship also appears above the battle between Airyglyph and Aquaria, when the Elicoor forces both attack the ships (both thinking they belong to the opposition). Naturally, Vendeen beats both armies rather handily. Fayt finds this rather distressing. Vox is killed in the attack. Dion is heavily injured.

Meanwhile, one of Vox's followers (Schweimer), has decided to stop any possibility of Albel's find coming to use by killing Sophia's group while Albel is away on the battlefield.

Robert learns that Fayt and Sophia are on Elicoor as well. Maria doesn't like Biwig suggestion that she follow him, and she manifests her power of symbological genetics, growing wings. Threatening Biwig and ordering him to stop the attack. Robert protests, claiming that in such close proximity (as in, being on the same planet), the manifestation will set of a chain reaction of manifestation in others, since they are nearby. Maria says she's the only one who can manifest, and this doesn't make sense. Immediately after manifesting, two pillars of light appear in the sky, one on the battlefield, the other further away towards Airyglyph.

At the cannons, Fayt manifests (due to a combination of Maria's manifestation and the highly stressful situation), to Cliff's great surprise, and then obliterates the Vendeeni battleship above him, ending the battle.

Sophia also manifests (for pretty much the same reasons as Fayt), which saves her from having her from being skewered, and she then immolates Scwehimer and anyone else stupid enough to try and stop her. (Note: This aspect of Sophia is based on the description in card EX22, a nice girl suppressing murderous intent). Ernest, Mayu, etc. find this rather scary.

The federation battleship Aquaelie appears.

The war's over, and everyone meets up in Aquaria to discuss what to do.

That is: Federation (represented by Witcomb), Vendeeni (Biwig), Quark (Maria), The Leingod scientists (Riobert), and naturally the main characters (Fayt and Sophia), who are rather confused by the fact that they are living symbol weapons. Robert has a lot of explaining to do. Dion is now perfectly fine, _and his recovery is not described to the reader in any way_. Ameena is still alive too.

Privately, Maria explains a little to Fayt about her origin. She says her adoptive mother, Jessie Traydor, had a former life as a researcher with the Leingods. One day, during the war with Aldian, her mother was forced to flee with her away from a battle on a transport. The transport was attacked by a black 'thing', but a strange woman with blue hair saved her (but not her mother). At this point, Maria is called away by a messenger, interrupting her story.

When she enters the room to meet the one who called her, she find's only a note with a strange symbol written on it. When she picks up the note, she finds herself on board a ship, next to what appears to be Fayt? When she asks for an explanation, 'Fayt' explains that he is not the same Fayt that Maria knows, also, he is intangible, like a ghost. Also, that she has been transported into the past, and that Maria knows the rest of what she has to do.

Maria is confused until she realises she in on board the transport that was attacked when she was a child, and immediately reaches the conclusion that the woman who saved her as a child was herself, now. 'Fayt' confirms this. Maria is angry at being forced to do this, as it implies that destiny is fixed, and that she will save her younger self, but not her mother, from the attack. Then, Dark Sphere attacks the ship.

Maria says that she can just not do anything, a paradox cannot occur, something else must happen, or this is just an illusion. 'Fayt' asks if she can really do nothing, and risk everything. Maria is forced to admit that she can't, and goes off to save her younger self (but also her mother). But she in only able to get her younger self in the escape pod, her mother still dies. Before Dark Sphere can kill Maria, she is transported back to Aquaria castle.

Maria is uncertain whether her failure to save her mother was because it was unavoidable, or because she was subconsciously afraid of causing a paradox and therefore let her die.

Later, the real Fayt asks her to complete her story, Maria is very angry/upset (and blames Fayt somewhat) and refuses to talk to Fayt, which Fayt doesn't understand.

Meanwhile, Robert explains the reason why he made the kids with symbological genetics. It was a tightly guarded secret in the Federation that other races, such as the Old Race of Roak and the Nedians knew of the ability to create people whose genetics were in the same of symbols. This allowed these people access to great power and symbology.

On Styx, the Federation discovered that the Time Gate warning that God was going to destroy the universe, because people were getting too cleaver with forbidden knowledge, symbology. They were becoming a threat to God.

The Federation made a secret plan to counter this, and Robert, who was on Styx, was made the head of the project. To instil living people with symbols encoded into their genes, which should make them far more powerful than any other user. Robert went further than this however. He decided that he could make a person where not only the genes were shaped into symbols, but the body as a whole was also a symbol. This would give the user access two layers of symbols, making them much more powerful than what had come before, provided they could master its use.

Over 1000 potential children were created this way, but none were believed to have survived. Except for one, who Jessie Traydor stole away, over moral implications of the project.

Since then, the Federation deemed the project a failure, and has used other methods (although only the top members of the Federation are aware of this). For example, the Federation has been very expansionistic in the past 20 years (which has annoyed many groups like Quark), because they are trying to get everyone to join them if they have to fight God.

However, the project wasn't truly over as the Federation had supposed. Robert and Ryoko thought it unfair to put all these children through this, without also placing their own child through the process, and so Fayt also had the genes given to him. However, Robert kept this a secret from everyone, even the Federation that was funding the project. The possibility that Fayt and Maria survived _because_ they were not through to exist on the mainline official records is speculated here.

Two years later, when Robert's group was even more advanced in their research, they tried again. However, they had no money for the project anymore (the Federation thought it a waste of time), so they only had access to one child this time, Clive Esteed's daughter, Sophia. Sophia's genes were based on a more advanced concept.

Symbols don't work by themselves; an intelligent being has to use them. That is, a symbol has to have meaning when it interacts with a mind for its effects manifest. Indeed, all symbols (not just the ones used for 'magic') have meaning this way. And because a person's thought patterns are effectively a symbol that has meaning through self-reference, Robert used the thoughts of Sophia's mind as the symbol, by including it directly as part of the user's thoughts. Because while people are merely made of atoms and proteins and such, it is the _interaction_ of the self with its own symbols which is what people _are_.

(Note: based on idea's of self-referencing symbols as the origin of consciousness and self, by Hofstadter. Sorry if that sounded a bit like an author tract, it's probably not very subtle.)

Basically, in addition to the shape of the DNA to form symbols (which is what had been researched previously by Nede, etc., and the shape of the genes in the body [Fayt and Maria]), the neural pathways of her thoughts were a third layer of symbols on top of that. Effectively, while for Fayt and Maria, their body and their genes are the symbol, for Sophia, it's her mind as well.

This makes genes given to her are potentially more powerful, but the full effects could not be studied without more money (which the Federation wasn't spending), so there's some uncertainty about her abilities. And because the symbols interact with her thoughts, it could be the reason why Sophia seemed to change personality more violently than Fayt or Maria when she first manifested.

People are in general shocked that Robert and his co-workers could do that to their own children.

Maria isn't very happy about all this. But her anger at Robert reveals something, that Robert has a symbology 'seal' placed on him. Maria breaks the seal, but this heavily injures (but doesn't kill) Robert (note: this is the same sort of seal that Celine was researching). Robert says that the seal prevented him from telling anyone that he had a seal on him, and that there are others on him, and pretty much everyone else in the universe has a seal on them, which he discovered during his research. But Robert doesn't know what all these seals do, but they appear to affect people's perceptions somehow, as if God was using it to hide something. The group discusses the possibility of removing the seals from everyone, but Robert and Maria have both been exhausted by the process and even if they removed every seal as quickly as possible, it would take an eternity to unseal everyone. And they still aren't sure if removing these seals is a good thing.

(note: the purpose of the seals is to prevent the Eternal Sphere characters from remembering the existence of the 4D avatar characters when they are not immediately present. For example, if a 4D character where to log out of the Eternal Sphere game, their character would seemingly vanish, something that would confuse people native to the Eternal Sphere.)

The Executioners appear, and attack the Federation/Vendeen/Aldian forces.

Earth gets blown up by the Executioners.

Under Robert's direction, they head to Styx to use the Time Gate to reach God's world, which is called 4D (for being a dimension 'above' the universe they know, not because it necessarily has more dimensions than their own).

The party approaches Styx, where they are chased by the Executioners. While avoiding them in Styx's atmosphere, Dark Sphere and two other entities (a red fireball and a white ball of light) start to chase them as well. Dark Sphere even saves them from an Executioner, by flying through it. The white ball of light flies into the cockpit (though the walls of the ship, as a ghost) and transforms into a very large man, who blocks everyone's view, trying to get the ship to crash, but the fireball (also going through the ship walls) pushes the man out.

The ship lands and everyone hurries to the Time Gate while being followed by the three entities.

Unfortunately, no one knows how to use the Time Gate in combination with the symbological genetics to reach 4D.

The white light ball lands and transforms into the very large ghost man, Dark Sphere remains Dark Sphere, and the red fireball lands and transforms into a girl that looks like Sophia. She explains how to use the Time Gate while trying to fight off the large man. The party can't help her, because they can't touch either of them.

After ghost Sophia's explanation, Dark Sphere begins to try sucking one ghost into itself (but not the party). The large man (now identified as Jie) tries to get sucked in, while the Ghost-Sophia grapples with him. Ghost-Jie pushes her away, and is sucked in alone, while Ghost-Sophia is left behind. Why she wants to be absorbed is unknown at this point.

In the 4D, the party learns the truth about their own dimension from a boy called Flad. Their world is considered a computer simulation (specifically, a MMO) made by Sphere Corp, and they are now in the 'real' world. Symbology is computer code that tells the universe how to react, which is why it can work like 'magic'.

But there are some rather interesting problems. Symbology is not supposed to exist in 4D, but it does. The Executioners were made to delete everything, because the Milky Way portion of the game is buggy (which really means they got too good at using symbology, meaning that the code could alter itself).

(Note: it's probably would not be revealed at this point, but symbology works because one of the powers of Fayt and company's genetics is that is changes the laws of physics of any universe they're in to be the same as the Eternal Sphere, so that the party can survive and comprehend it. Which was in the original game's dictionary too.)

(Note: People have a different reaction to time in 4D, compared to the Eternal Sphere. Time flows at the same rate, but cycles take much longer in 4D. For example, a day/night cycle in 4D takes what Eternal Sphere characters would consider to be several years. This is like how if someone from the Eternal Sphere were to play a game, and day/night cycle might only take a few minutes, in order to make the game more fun. A 4D person might live to be 100 years in their own view, but millions from the Eternal Sphere perspective. This explains things such as why it took Luther 20 years to get around to destroying the Eternal Sphere after the warning, from his point of view, it was only a few days, and he was working relatively fast. (The lack of aging [amongst other things] is not noticed by Eternal Sphere population because of the previously mentioned seals.).

(Note [yes, 3 of them]: Aside from not being remembered, avatars cannot permanently die except by suicide, or a kill by another avatar used by the same player, to make things more fun and convenient for the 4D people who play. This is why Rozaria automatically resurrected after she died, and how Dion recovered. Of course, seals prevent 3D people noticing this too. Since Rena was one of Philia's avatars, she could deliver a killing blow, but no one else should be able to permanently kill Philia's avatars.)

A plot hole appears here (due to changes I made from earlier versions, sorry). But somehow Fayt and Sophia get separated from the rest of the party. Probably while the others look for a more direct way of confronting Sphere Corp.

Fayt and Sophia investigate (with Flad's help) strange events in the timeline of the Eternal Sphere, although they can't trace where they appeared in 4D. They find that similar events occurred 700 and 400 years ago. They reason that possibly the people involved in those events would know something about the true nature of the Eternal Sphere, since they have travelled there before.

They use their powers to travel to the time 400 years ago, on the planet Nede.

Claude and Rena are picked up from the Field of Love where they were confronting Philia. They are forced to bring them back to 4D. After this, Fayt and Sophia realise that the reason that Claude/Rena were involved in those cross-dimensional events is because _they_ just did it to them.

Informed of Philia, Sophia now remembers her from Elicoor, and the 4 decide that they need to investigate her too, she must be a native of 4D to live as long as she did. And she is related to Dark Sphere, a being that wants domination, or something (they aren't quite sure what), so Philia needs to be found and stopped. Fayt, Sophia, Claude and Rena find the hospital where Philia's true body is kept. There, they find a teenage girl, hooked up to a life-support machine. Philia cannot move or speak, but talk using the room equipment, can give them information.

She says that the Philia they met in the Eternal Sphere is an out-of control avatar. She used to use it to explore the world of the Eternal Sphere, while her real body lay crippled, so that she could have a normal life. But for some reason, the avatar went out of her control, much like Rena did. They decide to take Philia away from the hospital until they can stop her avatar and Dark Sphere.

The kidnapped Philia says there is only one way to defeat Dark Sphere. She demands three items from the Eternal Sphere. The Demon's Mirror, her music box and Jie Revose, alive. They must do it here, in the 4D world, where Dark Sphere cannot touch them, it is their only chance to win. Supposedly, Jie was genetically designed with powers that could be unlocked through the use of these two items, and he can defeat Dark Sphere.

Rena finds this plan disturbing, but has trouble remembering why. Perhaps it was something that occurred in the dream she had before she began her journey, but she can't remember.

Philia tells them, "Dark Sphere told me that Jie has a very special genetic code in his body. Not only is it a DNA sequence that was the blueprint for his body, but the very shape of his bodily structure is a symbol. He was created as the best that the scientists of the Mu continent could create, aided secretly by Dark Sphere. Indeed, Dark Sphere was so clever with the design, there was perhaps only one in all existence better. Dark Sphere wants to use Jie, but perhaps he can be convinced to go against his creator."

(Note: this makes Jie roughly equivalent to Fayt and Maria in terms of inherent ability, although he is far more practiced).

Half of them go back in time to SD 46, planet Roak, and retrieve Jie and the mirror from the battle with Asmodeus. During the battle, Dark Sphere attacks and says that it knows what that the party is trying to do by retrieving Jie and the Mirror. As a result of Dark Sphere's attack, the main characters are forced to bring just about everyone present at the battle with them to 4D space (all the Star Ocean 1 characters, Jie, Asmodeus). Claude meeting his parents ought to be funny though.

They are forced to bring back everyone in the battle to escape Dark Sphere.

(Note: unfortunately, I won't be talking about them much).

At the same time, the other half go to Nede in SD 366 and retrieve the music box, but Dark Sphere does the same thing, and to escape, they end up bringing the SO2 cast and the TWM back with them. Which means that pretty much everyone is now in 4D space. Mass confusion follows. The TWM run off, causing havoc, and many characters are forced to follow them and try and prevent this.

The attacks by Dark Sphere convince them that they'll follow Philia's plan, although Rena and Claude really don't like it.

(Note: Currently present are the 6 main characters, Roddick, Millie, Claude, Rena, Fayt and Sophia, plus Jie and Philia, everyone else is dealing with the other problems).

The music box is opened, but nothing seems to happen. But Jie clams down, and claims to understand everything.

"I am destined to be a great champion. My genes were designed by Dark Sphere to give me great power, but until this moment, I did not understand my purpose. Do I have a power over Dark Sphere? Yes, I do. It is only a small thing, compared to Dark Sphere's immeasurable ability, but I see that we are linked."

"How" askes Philia?

"That even you don't know is proof of Dark Sphere's machinations."

Jie takes the mirror, and goads Fayt into touching him. Instantly, Jie copies Fayt's genetics and maps them on top of his own, giving him the same physics manipulation powers as Fayt. Fayt is rendered unconscious by this. The five remanding main characters instantly turn against Jie and Philia, recognising that they have been tricked.

Jie says then that there are still those more powerful than him, and that while he was designed from scratch to be able to absorb these powers, Philia was not. So Dark Sphere directed Philia to create an avatar that looked identical to the one whose gene's she would copy, so she could absorb them. And this avatar is why Ameena exists.

After a chase and battle, Jie is able to force Philia and Sophia to both make contact with the mirror, at which point Philia copies Sophia's powers. She then says lied about the Philia avatar in the Eternal Sphere breaking away from her control, she needed to make sure that Rena would not attack her while she was defenceless, and thus played on Rena's sympathy. The truth is that there is no difference between the Eternal Sphere and 4D versions of Philia, they are the same person. If anything, it was the avatar that fully assimilated the 4D body's personality.

Philia is shocked, she suddenly realises that Dark Sphere tricked her. Dark Sphere didn't just want to use Philia, Dark Sphere is Philia's future form. Dark Sphere was working from the future the entire time, in order to train Philia emotionally into becoming Dark Sphere.

She then turns into a black hole, and eats the six characters, using her powers to trap them inside her, at the beginning of time, where they can spend the next 14 billion years in a hell until now.

During that time, when they eventually catch up to the present, 14 billion years later, they are only acting as ghosts that then manipulate their former selves into doing what is needed to defeat Dark Sphere. Such as giving Leon the plans for the Aquarian Rune Cannon, getting Roddick and co. to meet Ronyx, Sophia telling herself how to use the Time Gate, and other things. Many of these things are useful for letting the others work out a way to help them escape.

To do this, they had to separate their 'essence' into parts. The 'essence' is the pattern of thoughts that make a person who they are. The main characters were able to create copies of parts of their essence in the world outside Dark Sphere, but doing so damaged the essence that remained inside Dark Sphere. Fortunately, the process works in reverse, so that if Dark Sphere were to ever absorb these essences in the real world, it would recombine with the part that was left inside Dark Sphere, restoring their original personalties. Everyone else (including their past selves) as ghost versions of them.

Of course, their personalities have changed during this time too, having become a lot more depressed and reserved, and almost focused entirely on defeating Dark Sphere without a plan on how to proceed after that.

It turns out that things that enter Dark Sphere are not totally lost to the outside world. Everything that Dark Sphere eats affects it, causing small changes to the surface of Dark Sphere, which acts as an encoding of all the information of everything that fell in. This cannot defeat Dark Sphere, but it may be possible to get back what once fell in.

(Note: This is based on a real idea, the 'holographic principle' in relation to the surface of a black hole. I make no guarantees that the story ideas these follow exactly the same; it is a work of fiction afterall. I find them interesting concepts.)

The combined efforts of the other party members are enough to create a symbol that when cast on Dark Sphere, forces her to eject everything she has swallowed. Not only the missing party members, but also Jie, Celine, Clyde, the entire town of Clik, (although it's a bit messed up), and lots of other stuff.

Philia immediately goes into shock, since she is now empty of everything that made her what she is, except for a tiny concept of herself.

The six main characters attack Philia while she is defenceless, but Jie was also returned, and immediately leaps to her aid. The six of them should be enough to overpower him, but Jie's previous plan, where part of Sophia's essence was not reabsorbed (back on Styx), stops this. Sophia's essence was purposely not reabsorbed back on Styx so that she could only partly return here. Sophia is unable to control her emotions or remember everything, and she goes berserk like she did on Elicoor, forcing Fayt some others to restrain her. This gives Jie enough leverage to escape with Philia.

The main characters tell the rest about what happened while they were inside Dark Sphere, which was like an Eternity Space. They should not have been able to escape, but parts of their essence were able to leave and appear as ghosts to other people, particularly people that they knew, or would know in the future. But even so, they went about the place trying to learn how to free themselves fully, and became know throughout the universe as the Seven Devils myth.

(Note: for the colours, Violet = Roddick, Blue = Millie, Yellow = Claude, Green = Rena, Gray = Fayt and Red = Sophia [so that the reader could work out which was which previously, though I don't go into much detail of what they did in this summary]. White = Jie, who was opposed to the rest [as the myth stated]. And obviously, the rumoured eighth Black Devil was Dark Sphere).

Each Devil being absorbed by Dark Sphere was the essence being recaptured, except for Sophia's, which was deliberated not captured when Jie was reabsorbed.

All the Star Ocean characters now have to deal with several problems at once:

Finding the rest of Sophia's essence in the Eternal Sphere so that she returns to who she was.

Find and defeat Philia/Dark Sphere, along with Jie who has joined her. Jie now has symbology manipulation power as strong and Fayt and Maria, as well as years of practice using symbols, so he's now stronger than them. Philia/Dark Sphere is even stronger, and because Sophia's symbology was designed to work based on symbols created using her thought patterns, it's not possible for Sophia to use her own power back until her essence is returned.

Stop the TWM, who are now free in this world. They are too powerful for anyone from this world to stop.

Stop Luther, who has decided that the recent events are proof that the Eternal Sphere game must be shut down immediately.

And of course, they must reconcile amongst themselves, due to the personal issues they now all have thanks to all the problems, but also mistrust due to many characters playing other characters along, (including using time travel to play themselves along).

The only way is to split up into smaller groups, since they can't afford to let any of the problems wait.

While investigating Philia further, the characters discover that in this 4D world, thousands upon thousands of young girls have disappeared from the records, from all over the place (although it is hard to tell, since they are not familiar with the 4D world).

It seems that the true nature of Philia is an amalgamation of certain personality aspects of these girls.

Individually, none of these girls were particularly noteworthy, except perhaps for the original, whom cannot be identified, due to Dark Sphere's manipulation of time travel. But it becomes clear the true history of Dark Sphere.

Dark Sphere is not even a person, but an idea that has become warped beyond recognition. This idea lived inside a person, and compelled him or her to become a being capable of time travel, probably using the research Dr. Leingod's had intended as a way to stop God from destroying the Eternal Sphere. Why the idea wanted to be able to travel time is not known. After gaining the power of time travel, the person with this idea accessed educational records to identify other children that might be sympathetic to its idea, and then travelled back in time to pass the idea on to the next person. The idea grew inside the mind of this person, and then this person became the time traveller, while the previous one became irrelevant. The process was then repeated with the idea passed on to another new person.

After many cycles, the idea had evolved into something completely different, into what Philia is in the current cycle. The idea of 'a being that wants to be loved by everyone'. This idea overwhelmed all the other ideas of the host person.

(Note: based on Meme theory, and the concept of ideas as patterns that form part of the pattern/symbol that makes up a person's personality, or 'soul'.)

Time to resolve some conflicts!

They bind Jie to Philia, this stops Philia from turning into Dark Sphere (or she would be forced to absorb him), allowing them to inflict damage on her through conventional and magical attacks. In the end, Philia is defeated when she crashes into one of the computers that runs the Eternal Sphere and dies in the destruction (note: because the information is stored on a network, this doesn't destroy the Eternal Sphere)

Of course, the TWM are still running around too, and they have to be brought to heel and taken back to the Eternal Sphere. Fortunately, the TWM are starting to fracture, since a few are already dead, and Zadkiel swtiched sides after Camael died. Lucifer is trying to turn the rest against Gabriel.

Some of the characters invade Sphere Corp to get at Luther. They are help and hindered by the internal politics at Sphere Corp. Azazer, Berial and Belzeber all have their own objectives (for instance, Belzeber believes that he should be head of the company, but Luther took over of Belzeber's father instead of Belzeber).

Luther is defeated (note: unlike the game, he does not delete the Eternal Sphere as he dies). Blair takes over as the CEO of Sphere Corporation. She says she will turn the Eternal Sphere into a museum, where it can live without interference forever.

With everything seemingly safe, all the party members make plans to return to their own time.

**END STAR OCEAN 3 Section.**

* * *

In the Eternal Sphere everything is seemingly alright, but…

They go to use the Time Gate, so that the SO1 and SO2 characters can return to their own time. The Time Gate claims that the past doesn't even exist, nor does the future. This is appears to be another End of Time, that the Time Gate foretold to Ronyx back at the beginning of the story.

Time does not seem to move forward. Rather, it is stuck in a loop, where the same 24 (Earth) hours repeats itself over and over, each day following the last, but no advancement in the calendar. While everyone retains their memories of each day before, no one can advance as aging, birth and death seem to completely reset themselves every day. It is like the entire universe has become as like one of Nede eternity prisons that they trapped the TWM and themselves in.

Furthermore, it is also apparent that there are now hundreds of young couples that weren't there before. These couples seem to be highly venerated by everyone in general, as if they were inherently worthy of special attention. The characters don't understand why this is, and must investigate.

The last two of the TWM (Gabriel and Lucifer) are freed by Philia and Jie, who are still alive. They survives by Philia/Dark Sphere consuming the Eternal Sphere database when she was about to die in their previous fight.

Philia expects that her father will join her, and Gabreil does, but Lucifer immediately rebels against both of them, and leaves to make his own plans to take the galaxy over.

Gabriel finds that his daughter is not acting the same as she did before, and beings to wonder if she is really the same person.

(Note: It turns out that only those who have shared some time with Philia's avatars that they can think like her in certain limited situations. That is, they emulate enough of Philia's thought processes, that the Eternal Sphere computer recognises them as the same entity, and thus they are able to harm her avatars permanently.)

The group is attacked by Jie, but they counter attack and steal his ship. They then talk to the Federation to convince them to deal with Philia.

Philia, from the planet Fargett, presents the universe with a choice. Either they can live forever in a perfect (by her standards) universe under her, where they need not fear anything for as long as they live, without ever dying. As long as everyone loves her, that is all she wants, and in return she will love everyone.

The universe goes to vote about what choice to make.

The Pangalactic Federation moves the military into an aggressive position around Fargett, ready to attack as soon the vote comes in. Both Vendeen and Aldian have decided to join the possible fight, if it comes to that.

All the characters are participating in the attack as well. In particular, Ronixis has been given command over one of the millions of ships that the Federation is using, due to the fact that he is both a widely recognised hero from his own time, and because he has had experience dealing with Philia.

Ronyx is not sure that the people of the universe will vote to attack, so he sends out his own 'result', using a signal encryption and transmission method from his own time (SD 346). The then blocks the transmission using the more advanced techniques of SD722. He knows that the deception will eventually be discovered (in about 5 minutes), but not until after the fight has started and there is no going back. The rest of the fleet then knows that an order has been given out, but don't know who it's from because it's being blocked, and they don't know who is blocking it either, because they are not set up to detect the blocking of far obsolete signals. So they are paralysed, thinking that a vote result has been made.

Ronyx then has his own ship charge forward to attack alone, predicting that the ships near him would see this, and assume that the vote was to attack, and that they would follow him. Which they do, which causes the ships near them to follow as well with the same assumption (except stronger, because there are lots of ships already attacking), until the entire Federation (and Vendeeni and Aldian) fleets are attacking.

This battle is supposed to be dramatic, somehow.

The first phase of the battle is the space war, where the Federation bombards the planet, while engaging is ship combat with Philia's forces (note: all of the ships in Philia's fleet are named after characters from Valkyrie Profile).

The second phase of the battle is the ground battle towards Philia's HQ, which is located deep underground (to make it hard to locate, which helps defend against tactics like dropping a ton of bombs on it). So the characters all land by various means (including a few crashes) and make their way through the labryith HQ using various routes. They encounter a lot of Philia's avatars along the way.

During the battle, some of the things I had planned include Ameena faking injury and dressed as Sophia in order to get an ambush on Fayt.

They finally reach Philia and Jie. They fight and kill Jie, which sends Philia made, and she transforms into Dark Sphere mode, saying she'll just swallow everything in the universe if that's what it takes to enforce her fantasy on reality.

The group enters Dark Sphere, on purpose this time, on the basis that they can't fight Philia while she in a Dark Sphere, but if they enter and fight her there, Philia cannot use that tactic. But if they fail, they're be stuck in Philia's world as her playthings forever.

They find themselves in a blank and black abyss, where they can see nothing, save an image of Philia off far in the distance. Philia quickly sees them back, and suddenly the world around them is surrounded by all manner of things, mixed and matched.

(This is the true nature of Philia, a girl who is essentially nothing by herself, so she fills herself with everything that she can to hide it. To truly defeat Philia, the group has to move past the illusionary world that Philia has created in an attempt to give meaning to herself.)

They make their way through, and reach Philia, and begin the last fight. Philia is now outnumbered, and starts creating avatar's to fight for her in the middle of battle to keep it even. But she has difficulty creating and concentrating on her avatars. And by the demonstrating of Rena and Clyde's existence, avatar's who separated and became independent, they demonstrate to the avatar's (not to Philia) that they can be independent too. As a result, they start defecting away from Philia. Philia just creates more avatars to compensate, but it eventually gets to the point where they defect the instant they are created.

At this point, Philia starts having a tantrum, as it is clear that even if she somehow wins the fight, she can never have the fantasy universe that she wants if even her own avatar do not want to follow her. It's a sign that in her mind, at some level, she doesn't want to win, and instead her future is an empty one because she no longer knows what she wants.

And the story is over. The avatar's of Philia separate from her, as they have gained independence, and I'm not sure how the rest would have gone, but considering everything else I'd probably want it to be a happy ending overall.

* * *

There's a lot of stuff missing, character's I didn't mention, character development I didn't talk about etc. Some of that stuff is not really possible to plot too much ahead of time, as characters should evolve naturally, and forcing them to develop in certain ways can be detrimental to the story. And there's 50 something characters, I would never be able to handle it anyway.

Well, that it. The story of three Star Ocean's mixed together, with a bit of my philosophy on what people are and what reality is. I'm sorry that I'll never finish it. I hope that the plot wasn't too confusing, because I sure confused myself! If you have any questions or constructive criticisms on the plot, please leave a message, and I'll try to answer as best I can.

Finally, for some potential plot-hole fun, I said that characters like Rena and Rozaria were/are avatars, which comes with certain special things. For example, notice how no one ever talks about Rozaria, except when prompted by people who can (at least, if I did it right). The elder of Arlia has an invitation to a wedding, but can't remember who's getting married, Leon can't remember who sat on that throne, etc. Of course, family members are excepted, but can't tell anyone else anyway (like Rena's mother Westa). Claude never had seals on him (he was born after Ronyx and Ilia had their seals removed, so he never had them), and characters like Dias and Allen managed to form bonds strong enough to overcome the seal (due to emulation of thought patterns, the rules controlling the Eternal Sphere recognises them as close enough to the same person that it bypasses the seals). Oh well, the explanation works in my mind anyway, but I'm sure I stuffed it up somewhere, so maybe you can find them?

Thanks again for your time.


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